After the Thrills
by NekoXyN
Summary: Luffy has a treasure hunter on his crew, who comes from another dimension. This story picks up right after Thriller Bark, following her continuing story.
1. Awake

_Chapter 1: Awake_

Waking up to the noisy, boisterous caterwauling of many voices belting out 'Bink's Sake', Jiru, the Mugiwara Pirate's valued treasure hunter, moaned and attempted to cover her ears to block out the awful sound.

"Oh, Jiru, you're awake!" The happy, relieved voice of the brown-furred doctor drifted into her ears.

"Chopper, make it stop…that horrid racket…I'm going to…" the bed-ridden, height-challenged female suddenly felt the sharp, rising nausea starting from her gut. Tossing her body to the side, she managed to avoid those who would be disturbed while she exhumed her stomach's meager contents.

"Jiru, that is just disgusting. I'm adding 60,000 Beri to your debt." The even-toned voice of the tangerine-haired navigator drifted from above Jiru's head.

Shakily, she wiped her mouth with a hand. Dropping back onto the rather stiff bed, Jiru turned her eyes to Nami's voice. "S-sorry, Nami-san, my stomach did it."

Making the stern-acting navigator laugh, Jiru's stomach did another flip; but she managed to grit her teeth against the rising feeling. Chopper hovered frantically over her as the he stood on a stool to reach.

"Are, you ok, Jiru? You're not going to hurl again, are you?" The squeaking nervousness of his doctor's voice made her smile. "You ought to see a doctor. Wait, I'm a doctor!"

"No, I'm ok. I'm not going to barf again. Promise." The tired pirate gave the concerned doctor a close-lipped smile. She didn't want Chopper to smell her barf-breath.

Then, clinching her eyes and ears against the still noisy music and partying, she turned her attention inward. The greatest pains came from her right foot, lower gut and head. Most likely her foot was broken from the debris that fell on it while she was shielding Luffy with her body from Kuma's Ursa Air-Bomb. Her gut, she wasn't at all sure what caused that hollow pain, while her head was hazy and groggy from emotional stress and exhaustion.

Slowly moving her limbs and torso, she found numerous cuts, bruises and aches to accompany those three major pains. Nothing felt like it was impaled, missing or infected. Of course, she had Tony Tony Chopper taking care of her. The treasure-hunter trusted the blue-nosed reindeer to always keep her more or less in one piece, which brought her back to the emotional pain of remembering Zoro's hellish deal with the Tyrant.

"ZORO!" Jiru bolted upright to frantically look for the swordsman.

She had managed to stay conscious long enough to witness Zoro's noble, idiotic sacrifice by taking Luffy's pain. The sight of Zoro's near, possibly dead, bloody body had seared her very soul with terror and despair. She would have used her own life-force or their child's to keep him alive had the other Shichibukai not approached her after his interaction with the swordsman. Her Reiki-Reiki no Mi (Aura-Aura Fruit) had the ability to manipulate the ever-present flowing energy of Aura that all living things emitted. She could have transplanted more living energy into the dying male; but it had just been an idea, she had never done such an act before.

XXX

'_The fetus within you is dying; and is most likely dead and your stomach is hemorrhaging.' The high-set eyes looked down at the trembling Treasure Hunter. 'I am offering my power to repel the damage in your uterus, Golden Thief; otherwise you might not survive long enough to seek medical attention.'_

'_How…what the hell do you know about my child, you bastard bear.' Jiru had hissed back to the giant. She hardly was in a position to use her Fight or Flight instinct. Her physical energy was rock-bottom empty and Luffy was still behind her – there was no way she was going to abandon her position and allow Kuma a straight shot at Luffy. It wasn't like she could move any way, her left foot was numb and refused to function._

'_I'm a cyborg. I can see your internal data, and thus your bodily injuries.' His cold tone of voice made her shiver. Was he telling her the truth? Could he really have that type of vision that peered within a person's body? She half-way believed it of him. Her Reiki-Reiki no Mi powers allowed her insight and certain knowledge of people by reading their Auras; the waves of energy they produced. A cyborg could very well have X-ray vision._

'_Why are you doing this? Haven't you done enough damage here, you ass-munch government bastard?'_

'_That is none of your concern, Golden Thief.' Kuma's tall, hulking mass stood motionless as he answered her. 'I am simply offering you a chance to save yourself.'_

'_Was that the same damned offer you gave Zoro-chan!'_

'_Very well, I'll leave you with the rest of the Mugiwaras.' The Paw-Paw User turned to go._

'_NO! Wait…I accept your offer…just…don't say anything about it.' Jiru buckled and pounded the broken, stony ground in frustration. 'Just do it.'_

_Kuma reached down and lifted her high into the air, leveling her eyes with his and touched her abdomen with his ungloved 'paw'._

'_I assure you that nobody will ever know about this, Golden Thief.' With that, the Shichibukai expelled the tiny mass of death and blood from her most sacred organ. Unable to look at what he had expelled, the treasure hunter just stared at the screaming swordsman yards away, her tears streaming faster and faster until they blinded her vision._

'_Forgive me Zoro-chan…just…don't hate me.' Her mind echoed into the dismal abyss of pain._

_Finally, with a soft 'pop', the wound housed within her stomach exited her body. Kuma lowered her gently to the ground, his other hand holding the red-tinted orb of mass he expelled._

'_Farewell, Golden Thief, expect no favors from this meeting.'_

_Barely holding onto consciousness, Jiru watched Kuma simply vanish, leaving the scene and going back to whatever hell-spawned place he came from._

'_Forgive me, Luffy, Zoro…Kuma was right…my child was dead.' Jiru cried herself into unconsciousness, vaguely aware that Zoro had stopped his banshee-like screaming._

'_Zoro, please….please don't die too…'_

XXX

"Jiru, lie back down, you shouldn't be twisting your stomach like that!" Chopper cried - no - ordered her to. The chibi-sized doctor morphed into his large-body mode to try and restrain her. Jiru, after finding what she sought, allowed the human-sized reindeer to lower her back to the table-bed.

"Is that shit-marimo breathing, like as in: alive!" Her relieved tears flowed slowly again as her gaze held steady on the make-shift med-bed next to her. Zoro laid there, bandaged in semblance to a white-mummy; unmoving like the dead; but breathing.

The swordsman looked more injured than she had ever seen him. She could only grasp unknown numbers to predict the amount of time since Zoro had been medically treated. His bandages were currently off-white-grey; rather that the blackish-red expected of a freely bleeding body. Just how many gauzy layers did Chopper peel through to stop Zoro's bleeding, she could only imagine.

"Yes, yes, he is alive, just barely." Chopper's grim voice didn't help at all. "What happened to him anyway?"

"He…" She steeled herself to explain the horrible set of events.

"YOU'RE AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKEEEE!" Luffy's excited voice cut through the noisy background and interrupted the doctor's quiet place. Extended, rubbery arms cut through Jiru's defenses to wrap around her tender waist. Those arms were followed by the rest of the body as Luffy careened into her, knocking them both off the table.

"Luffy, wait!" Jiru yelped. Chopper was startled and then angry as their captain disrupted the quarantined 'healing' area, knocking one of his patient off the bed.

Nami, too, became angry as Luffy managed to soften Jiru's ground-landing by shifting his body. He landed as Nami's outraged fist missed its mark and hit the treasure hunter's shoulder.

"OUCH, Nami what was that for?" Jiru hissed in surprise. Beneath her, Luffy had his back to the rocky, gritty ground as he laughed jubilantly up to his precious nakama.

"Oops, sorry, Jiru-san, I was aiming for Luffy." Nami, the Mugiwara Navigator, managed to look guilty.

"Oi, Luffy, you idiot! You made Nami-chwan hit Jiru-chan!" The baritone, raspy voice of a blonde-headed cook interrupted the pair. Sanji entered from the left-side of Jiru's vision, the trademark cigarette hanging off his lips as the cook stalked angrily up to them.

"Oi, yourself, Sanji-kun; smoking is bad." Jiru, having landed safely on top of Luffy's rubbery body, opted not to start hitting Luffy for being silly. Her broken, swollen ankle sent her nerves screaming in pain. She shifted the foot away from Luffy's wiggling legs.

"Jiru, you're awake! I'm so glad you're ok!" The light, playful voice of the ship's sniper, Usoppu, rang to her.

"You people ought to…" The hunter began to tell the gathering crowd to move away from the prone, sleeping body of Zoro. She tried hard to shift her foot into a position that hurt less. Luffy's constant movement made it difficult to keep her foot immobile.

"Hay, Chibi-Sis, you're up! SUUUUPPPAAA!" Franky's voice made the treasure hunter's lips curve upward into an amused smirk.

In her quick-moving awareness, Jiru knew the Mugiwara pirates were converging on her position. Robin was most likely to enter next; or not, as the moving bodies of Sanji, Usoppu, Franky and Nami split away long enough to allow Jiru to glimpse the calmly sitting presence of Robin yards away. The dark-haired Archeologist gave a small smile, waved and leaned her elbow on the makeshift table that held her tea-cup. Jiru had to give the woman due credit, as Robin was intelligent enough to know when to give people their space.

Not that Jiru blamed the current crowd that bustled around her: Luffy was her optimistic, happy-go-lucky idiot-captain that always wanted to share the joy. Chopper and Nami had been there first, so they had some right to be there. However, the presence of Sanji, Usoppu and Franky began to make Chopper's 'hospital' area crowded.

"YOHOOHOHOHOHOHOHOH!" A new, now-familiar laugh entered the melee, and Jiru knew that Chopper was going to snap. Brooke, the re-dead skeleton with his trademark afro and freshly minted Mugiwara, had ceased whatever he had been doing and joined the mix.

"ENOUGH!" Jiru ordered sharply, and used her Reiki-Reiki no Mi powers to create a wall of compressed air to gently separate the quarrelling forms of Sanji, Usoppu, Franky and Brooke from her and Zoro's medical beds.

"Please back off!" She raised her voice to be heard over the separated pirates' complaints. "Chopper is TRYING to heal Zoro and me, so back away slowly and do whatever."

"Shishishishishi, relax, Jiru, they're just happy you're ok." Luffy's voice came from behind. The rubbery captain shifted and slid out from underneath her, keeping his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Luffy-chan, but…they might wake Zoro up and he needs to rest!" She helplessly responded. She dropped the air-wall as Luffy's shifting body jostled her ankle, making her hiss in pain.

"JIRU!" Chopper's voice cried out. "Let her go, Luffy, she needs to not move her foot."

"But, Chopper, I wanna hold onto her now she's awake!" Luffy whined back. His statement put a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Oi, baka! Listen to what Chopper is saying!" Sanji tucked his hands in his pockets, holding back, with effort, the need to kick Luffy.

"Luffy-san, Chopper is right, she does need to rest after losing the ba-…" Nami's voice was cut short as she realized what she was going to say: '_Losing the baby_'.

Jiru stopped squirming as she felt Luffy go tense and stiff behind her. It was like his joy instantaneously flipped into something negative.

"Luffy? What's wrong?" Her voice sounded small. Twisting painfully around to look at Luffy's lowered face, the treasure-hunter felt her throat clench tight. It was then she became aware of more presences closing in around her.

Looking up to see just who they were, Jiru gasped as she registered the hundreds of rescued victims that had their shadows stolen by the defeated Moria. Leading them was the large, pink-haired woman who looked strong enough to break the treasure hunter in half. Next to the woman, Lola, stood, both of whom had to be first-mates or something similar, two men that had pained looks on their faces. Turning back to her friends, the girl saw the same, haunted, poorly-hidden, pain on their faces.

"What's wrong!" the dark-haired pirate turned back to Luffy, who hadn't lifted his head to respond to her. "What's going on? Did something happen!"

"Ah, uh….Jiru-chan, don't you remember?" Usoppu broke the eerie silence. "Don't you remember what happened to you?"

By now, her shyness was on the verge of socially panicking in front of the group of strangers. She had both her hands on Luffy's shoulders. "What! What don't I remember! Luffy tell me?"

"Jiru-chan…" Sanji's soft voice answered her. "You…you lost the baby, your baby." The cook removed his cigarette as he avoided her eyes. The injured treasure-hunter felt her blood wash through her like a wave of ice, causing her fingers to constrict on Luffy's shoulders. Denial came and left in the same instant, before it shattered on suppressed memories.

"Oh…god…no…" The horrid memories of her actions slammed down into her skull. Did they know the truth? Did they all know that she purposely allowed Kuma to abort the dying life that had been the result of two men within her? She didn't want Luffy to know the shameful, brutal truth until it was too late; even then she would have be pained to tell her captain the truth of the matter – how she became pregnant. That was moot point, now that she no longer was pregnant.

Turning her head to Luffy, Jiru heard herself moan in anguish. The cat was out of the proverbial bag; but it didn't help that she ended up losing the child after all – Zoro had extracted a promise from her to let it live. Whether that anguish was for herself, for her lost child, or for making Luffy sad and worried about her, she didn't know; but Luffy's arms instantly came back up around her, holding her tight.

"Luffy, I…" She began to explain, but her captain only lifted his head and stared straight into her eyes. She normally didn't make eye contact like this, and blinked.

"It's ok, Jiru-chan, these things happen." His serious black-brown eyes bore into hers as she felt her resolution waver. "You fought against Oz so hard, and did such a good job…"

"Luffy…" Jiru repeated his name before the emotional dam burst. Knowing an unconscious Zoro was behind her and Luffy's uncharacteristic seriousness were straws that broke the camel's back. Thrusting her face forward to Luffy's shoulder, she hid it from the unwanted, unknown crowd that gathered and let the tears pour out.

Barely registering Luffy's arms curling around her twice, the treasure hunter just let her guilt, pain, anger and sorrow flow out with her tears. She felt herself cry miserably until she drifted off to sleep.


	2. Night on Thriller Bark

_Chapter 2: Nightfall on Thriller Bark_

_The point when Luffy knew something was wrong was when Chopper began to panic over the unconscious form of his beloved treasure-hunter. On first glance, it merely looked like she was still sleeping, and had picked up an injury on her foot; most likely a break in the bone or torn muscle. Luffy had been worried and upset over the woman's injury, but Chopper convinced the pirate captain that a broken foot was easily managed. Luffy semi-reluctantly left the reindeer doctor to his patients and joined the newly started party that the Moria victims initiated – he wasn't going to miss food and singing for anything._

_After Chopper had taken care of the badly wounded Zoro – Luffy had no idea how the swordsman got in such a wounded state – the reindeer had moved onto Jiru. Luffy figured everything was fine until Chopper screamed in shock three minutes later. The doctor's scream had sent Luffy careening over to the two medical, make-shift beds – the ten-minute old party all but forgotten._

_"No, no, NO!" The reindeer had a look of frantic panic in his eyes. "It's not there! How is that possible?"_

_"Chopper, what's wrong!" Nami had asked while Luffy was running over to the beds._

_"Jiru's baby, it's gone!" Chopper had yelled in surprise; bringing the rest of the Mugiwaras over._

_"Chopper!" Nami had hissed uselessly, laying a hand on the doctor's small-sized shoulder. "Luffy didn't know about Jiru's condition, she asked us not to tell him yet."_

_The unconscious form of the Golden Thief lay quietly on the table, her black shirt rolled up to uncover her tan stomach. Chopper had been examining that area when he started screaming._

_"Well, he knows now, Nami." An approaching Usoppu had pulled the stunned captain away from Jiru's bed._

_"Great, just great." Nami had muttered while Luffy stood there, his brain processing the situation. Although it was nearly impossible to tell, there was a telltale bruise along that ever-so sneaky bump of her lower stomach skin, right below the navel._

_ "She was pregnant? Why didn't Jiru TELL me she was having a baby?" Luffy's confused, anguished voice shouted loudly at the crew. "WHY DIDN'T SHE TELL ME!"_

_"Oi, you idiot, did you ever think she DIDN'T want you to know?" Usoppu's voice argued back, even louder._

_Their shout-fest had drawn the crowd of people that the Mugiwaras had rescued from Moria's shadow-stealing tyranny. Usoppu, like the rest of the East-Blue pirates, knew Jiru well enough in that she was somewhat socially shy, and took a while to trust strangers. Shouting her personal issues to the masses was not a good idea. Chopper quickly unrolled her shirt and covered her once-bare stomach; hiding the sight from the strangers._

_"Not want me to know? But you guys knew?" Luffy questioned further. "How long? How long has she been pregnant?"_

_"Luffy, calm down, and let us explain." Nami's pained voice interrupted the argument._

_"No, I want to know…how long and who is the father?" the captain's voice ordered again._

_"Two months…" Chopper put his two cents in, his cloven hoof-hands fiddling with the edge of his patient's black shirt. "We think the father is Zoro…" _

_"Just tell him the truth, Doctor-san." Robin's voice was finally heard. The raven-haired woman calmly joined them, looking sadly at the shorter female._

_"The truth?" Luffy sounded confused._

_"Jiru-chan was raped by one of the CP9, that bastard-giraffe Kaku." Sanji's voice was brittle enough to shatter like glass on rock. "It happened on the Sea Train before Franky, Soge-King and I managed to rescue her."_

_"She was terrified to tell you, Luffy. She didn't want you to go bat-shit insane and get into another crazy fight like you had with Lucci." Nami managed to interject before a long silence fell._

_"Explain how Zoro might be the father…" The wavering, pained voice broke the lull._

_"Zoro fought and defeated Kaku after bastard admitted to raping her." Usoppu answered quietly. "Zoro was the first one to deal with the aftermath."_

_"Aftermath?"_

_"Yea, the shitty swordsman was there to pick her up after she broke. It was after we got back to Water 7 that she fell apart, and they slept together then."_

_"So Zoro and the CP9 dude both raped her?" Luffy sounded shocked._

_"No, Zoro helped her find herself, so she wouldn't hurt herself or the baby. She wanted to sleep with him to forget the fear. So he helped her by sleeping with her." Nami most likely wasn't looking at Luffy. "So we figured that Zoro, as strong as he is, might be…have been, the father."_

_"I see." Luffy's only response was._

_"You gotta admit; Chibi-Nee-chan is strong. Stronger than I expected." Franky's baritonic voice chimed in. "I mean, she made some difficult choices and stuck with them; that takes guts."_

_"Shut up, you asshole! Jiru-chan is special. She may not look it, but she came from Outer Space!" Chopper's indignant voice rebuked the shipwright. "She's been through more than any of us can imagine!"_

_"Chopper, it's ok. Franky doesn't know Jiru like we do." Luffy's flat, even voice stopped the doctor's tirade. "She would have told me about it when she was ready. She's always known that. For now, let's let her sleep and heal."_

_"What…what about the baby?" Chopper's voice had been barely audibly._

_"Chopper!" Nami gasped._

_"We'll…figure something out, won't we, Chopper?" Luffy's voice sounded distant and mournful. "We've lost a member of the crew today, and we never knew it."_

_It took another two hours to pull Luffy and the others out of the macabre mood and back into the light-heartedness of the party. It took the combined efforts of food, music and every single one of the shadow-victims to entice the Mugiwaras back into the celebration._

XXX

Jiru slowly pulled out of her random-flash-scene dreams, her consciousness surfacing from deep-sleep, like an air bubble in water. Registering the soft, cushy bed was the first thing her senses tuned in; the second that she was in a dark room on the Thousand-Sunny-Gou, the Mugiwara's ship. Her body felt the, minute ingrained motion of the gentle sea-born swaying; the salty waves pushing and rolling under the grand ship. The third immediate sense was the sharp abdominal pang telling her she had to pee.

"Uhm…hello?" She called out into the darkened room. Not hearing a response to her inquiry, she decided to go to the bathroom herself. Memories slashed back into her awareness when she swung her feet over the side of the bed. The sharp, biting agony of her left foot reminded her that she had a seriously injury.

"Jiru!" Luffy's voice responded to her groan of pain.

Turning her head back to the bed, she coughed in embarrassment. The sheets that had covered her were thrown back as a shirtless Luffy darted over the mattress to get to her.

"Are you ok? Don't move, Chopper says it'll take a couple weeks for your ankle to heal." The childish, yet well-placed concern was touching. Jiru smiled in the dark and nodded. "He says there was a bruised bone and torn muscles, or something like that."

"Uh, ok, I won't move then." She answered, making her captain smile in relief. "But….I really have to…pee. Like now."

Jumping into action, Luffy leapt over her and crouched down to carefully scoop her up into his strong, rubber-powered arms. Straightening up and rushing over to the door, using a foot to kick it open, Luffy carried her into the water closet.

She normally would have yelled at any male that dared to interrupt her private times – such as showering or relieving herself – but her half-awake system decided not to. Luffy managed to fit them both into the water closet; then he hitched up her black skirt and pulled her clean underwear to her knees. Sitting on the porcelain bowl, Jiru managed to hold back the flow until Luffy finally stepped back. Then, after relieving herself, she yawned and looked up to Luffy.

"Uh, thanks…Luffy, don't look at me like that. This is how girls pee, dummy." She threw a towel at him. "Turn around, so I can get up!"

"But, Chopper said…" the captain looked slightly concerned and embarrassed at the same time.

"I heard you the first time! I CAN float you know." Jiru muttered under a red, blushing face.

Luffy turned around, giving his treasure hunter privacy. Hearing her finish her potty break and flushing the loo, the rubbery captain then faced the girl again and crossed his arms.

"Ok, so now what?" She asked, washing her hands. She had her balance weighing on her right foot, keeping the left foot from touching the floor.

"Now you go back to bed." Luffy answered seriously.

"Ok, fine." Jiru allowed her captain to carry her back to the half-covered bed. "What time is it anyways?"

"Two a.m., Day 2. You've slept for twenty hours."

"A DAY?" Jiru looked astonished. "No wonder I had to pee-" She stopped speaking when Luffy placed her on something stiff and square. Reaching underneath her, she pulled out a small red bento box – a traveling box made for carrying a seven part mini-meal.

"Oh, that…" Luffy managed to sound guilty as he looked at the box. Jiru kept it away from him as he reached for it.

"What is a bento box doing in this bed?" The treasure hunter looked questioningly at Luffy.

"sanjimadeyouabentobox,butiateit." Luffy mumbled.

"What?"

"Sanji figured you'd be hungry when you woke up, so he left a bento box on the table." Luffy whispered louder, pointing to the bedside table.

Looking tiredly around the dark-veiled room, Jiru noticed that she was using the captain's bedroom – one Luffy rarely used since he always bunked with is nakama in the deck below. The bedside table was still within the shadow's grasp; unlike the wooden floor that caught the moonlight spilling in from the small, round window next to the door. A pair of used chopsticks sat haphazardly next to the small, unlit lamp. Looking back to Luffy's face, Jiru snickered and bit her lip. Her captain had his pout-guilty, close-lipped look firmly on his face. Jiru knew the bento box was most likely hidden from Luffy; but was most likely discovered and devoured by the rubber-man when he found it.

"You know, Sanji-kun is going to kick your ass when he finds out you ate my food."

"So." Luffy's overly-wrought guilty eyes glanced quickly at her and then away. "I was hungry."

"Luffy, when are you NOT hungry?" Jiru finally pried open the closed food box and gave a short, bubbly laugh. The only item remaining in the seven part food box was the white rice; even then, some of the rice looked delved into. "Rice, huh?"

"I was hungry, but had to leave you something." Luffy pursed his lips even more and sat down on the bed, crossing his legs.

"Well, whatever." She yawned again and closed the box, setting on the bed's empty space. "I'm going back to sleep."

"So you're not going to eat it?"

"Not at the mo-…no. You can have it." Jiru yawned again as Luffy snatched the box back and tore into the remaining rice with the chopsticks. "Luffy, don't eat on the bed!"

It was too, late as the eighteen-year old pirate was busily shoving his face with rice.

"Thanks so much, Ji-chan!" Luffy sputtered out his thanks with a few grains of rice. Carefully lying back down on the bed, Jiru snorted and held back another laugh.

"You really are hungry."

"Duh."

"…" Jiru's head touched the pillow, and she felt the sleep come back. "I was going to say something else, but I forgot."

Finishing his last bite of rice, Luffy placed the now-empty red box back on the table and threw the chopsticks into the corner of the room.

"It's ok, Jiru, you just go back to sleep and I'll be right here when you wake up." Luffy produced his trademark, beloved personal treasure, the red-banded straw-hat, and set it on her shoulder. "See, I'll have Wara-san keep you company."

"Wara-san?" Jiru giggled softly. "So now your hat has a name, huh? Cute. I wanted to call it something else…I don't know." Closing her eyes and yawning once more, she felt the relaxing comfort of the soft bed sooth her body. Hearing Luffy chuckle softly, Jiru smiled and fell back into the deep, comforting sleep her body needed.


	3. Ace's Dream

_Chapter 3: Ace's Dream_

Hearing the chains clank loudly against each other, Jiru bolted awake and fell, splayed on her stomach, across someone's clammy lap.

"What the crap?" She gasped in utter shock.

Looking up and facing the grimy, dingy, dark stone wall, her eyes froze at the hulking mass of the blue-skinned fish that calmly sat there; the multitude of thick chains restraining him too many to count. His face stared at her in shock, the fanged lower jaw open in amazement.

His face, large and grim, leered openly at her, giving her a view of what the large, marine creature really looked like. A pair of black eyes sat under bushy eyebrows; and the left eye sported an angry, red scar. The bush of black, curling hair rustled on his back as the fishmen – for that was truly what this thing was – leaned forward. The massive, rotund throat was working under the splash of his curly trimmed chin-beard. The red, orange-square patterned kimono was dirty, torn and bloody; indicating he had been in the same spot for a while.

"Astonishing." The rumbling bass of his deep-throated voice startled her into flinching, bringing awareness once again to her predicament – she wasn't on the Sunny-Gou.

The next several seconds completely blew her mind as her senses registered the rest of the environment that was assuredly NOT the bedroom she had fallen asleep in on the Thousand Sunny-Gou. First off, she wore nothing but a knee-length white shirt to cover her otherwise nude form. Secondly, the moaning, pleading and life-begging screams and curses of many other voices entered her ears. Thirdly, the dark, stone-built room she was in was undoubtedly a jail cell. Then, finally, as she managed to unlock her eyes from the blue-skinned, white-fanged marine-beast in front of her, she became aware of a stiff, prodding stick pushing up against her lower stomach.

"Heya, babe, I didn't actually think it'd work." The husky, fiery voice greeted her from the lap-owner's head. The familiarity of the voice made her freeze in pure disbelief. "Nice ass, by the way, I'd love to have some."

Shoving herself off the ground and away from the prodding stick, Jiru bolted onto her knees with a cry of surprise and let her hand fly across the freckled face of Luffy's older brother, Portgas D. Ace.

"PERVERT!" She managed to scream. "What have you done!"

"Invoked your name."

"That's bloody not FAIR!" the shocked treasure hunter shifted to readjust the weight on her knees. Sitting back on folded legs, she stared wide-eyed at Ace, then lowered her gaze. The rod that had been poking her was none other than Ace's very attentive male member.

"Like what you see, babe?" Ace continued to tease her. "You can play with 'em if you want to."

"Again, you pervert!" A red-faced Jiru scrambled back away from Ace and the Fishman. "Just what is this horrible place!" Looking to her right, and outside the bars, the confused female viewed the rest of the cold stone floor; which was just as terrible and intimidating as the cell she sat in. "Why did you invoke my name HERE! In front of…HIM!"

Pointing to the now-relaxed fishman, Jiru was still stunned. Not only had Ace used the name she had hidden by not speaking it, but he had spoke it in front of a complete stranger. By saying her true name, the older brother had managed to call her to his side.

"Relax, babe, it's nothing to worry about. Old Jimbei here swore not to invoke your name." Ace grinned back at her as he nodded towards the watchful fishman. "You can trust me on that."

"O-o-ok, I guess so…" Jiru allowed herself to calm down slightly.

"Besides, we're all asleep here, so nobody is going to hurt you." Ace snickered. "Trust me: this all is a very weird dream. See?" The masculine laugh made her shiver as his head pointed past the bars. Looking back out of the bars, the previous stone floor was now the deck of a large ship. The wooden deck of the ship turned out to be made of brown flowers the size of her thumb.

"OK, this is completely bizarre." Jiru looked at Ace as he finally stood up. "I wasn't expecting this, I really thought you teleported me here."

"In a way, I did. We're connected through our dreams." Ace's sultry voice chuckled. "You taught me yourself, back in Alabasta's desert, how to connect to someone's dreams."

"I guess I did, didn't I?" The softness in her voice returned, as she fell into a remembering daze. "It's been so long for me."

She had mentioned some random story on how a person could insert themselves into someone else's dream. The person would mentally picture a version of his or herself floating into the back of that person's neck, between the second and third vertebrae.

XXX

Ace stepped towards her while she was thinking; wearing his normal red shorts and worn out brown hat. Looking down at her with bedroom eyes, the older pirate took his hand and lifted her chin upwards, allowing him access to her delicious lips. Covering her mouth with his, Ace reveled in the faint taste of her lips; mint and raspberry – just like the first time he met her on his younger brother's ship back in Alabasta-port waters.

Having an errand to run within Alabasta borders, Ace had opted to join his younger brother in his jaunt through the desert. It proved to be a thrilling adventure – while searching for any leads in the Alabastian desert on his bounty-hunted prey, Blackbeard – Ace had fallen head over heels in love with the treasure-hunter that sailed under Luffy's command. The young dark-haired girl had paled in physical comparison to the fiery tempered and busty orange-haired navigator Nami and the slender, graceful lithe figure of the undercover princess, Vivi, whom temporarily traveled with the Mugiwaras. But her spirit shone through like a wildfire in the night. He loved the way she laughed, teased her friends and her sharp, flowing intellect. The fire-wielding pirate always made an effort to get close to her while they traveled – much to the dismay of more than one pirate of his brother's crew.

He and she ended up separated from the rest within the desert; and Ace jumped on the chance to convince her to join the Whitebeard Pirates. Her polite refusal cut like a knife, but Ace bore the disappointment. Whitebeard would be better off without someone who changed loyalties so easily, and so he let her stay with the Mugiwaras – for now. However, her refusal didn't stop the fiery-powered pirate from vowing to protect her until she could reunite with Luffy.

It was on the night before they regrouped, that Ace had given her the night of her life; and she, his. She had trusted him enough to tell her bizarre story – how she fell from another plane of existence in search of the broken pieces of her personal treasure, a shattered jewel that contained power. Her story continued with who she really was and what she did – a warrior that traveled the stars. Ace had to say it was one of the most out-land-ish things he heard, but returned her trust by telling her his deepest secret: who his father was. She told him she already knew, and he was completely taken by surprise. She had, not once, shown the revulsion or contempt Ace had always seen on other faces when he spoke of his heritage – of who his father was. Then, after sharing their previous experiences in the desert, Ace gave in to his urges and showed her the true, fiery nature of 'Fist-Fist' Ace.

Coupling with her – safely, due to her concerns – had driven him out of his sanity. She was the best partner ever, past or future. Ace had blessed the gods as he watched her blossom into a wildfire that matched his own. Ardor and passion burned hotly through him as he drove her wild on the sand under the night stars, time after time, until the sun rose.

Rejoining the Mugiwara Pirates, Ace used no words to show his younger brother how he protected Jiru. Offering his brother and Jiru a position in White Beard's crew – both still refused – Ace knew it was time to move on. If he didn't, he'd never be able to separate himself from his new-found soul mate. Giving a brief, to-the point farewell – along with a Vivre card to Luffy, telling the pirate that the card would lead him to Ace if he simply followed the moving paper – Ace took off, his mind full of thoughts on both extremities. On one hand, he had no luck in finding any decent leads on that black-hearted bastard, Teach; on the other, he was now thoroughly distracted to the point of frustration. Ace should have declared his feelings to Luffy and Jiru; and stolen the woman away.

Ace was furious, then, having finally caught up to Blackbeard months later, when the scoundrel brought up Ace's relation with both his brother and the treasure-hunter. The murderous bastard, having met Luffy but not Jiru, had planned to capture their bounties to pay his way to be a Shichibukai. Deep down, if he hadn't been so infuriated, Fire-Fist would have laughed at the fact his quiet, shy female had made a name and bounty for herself by assisting Luffy in fighting against the World Government at Enies Lobby.

Rumor had it; she became the 'Golden Thief', bounty of 113 million Beri, by stealing the fabled Golden Den-Den Mushi right from the hands of CP9's director. That kind of sly, thieving talent would serve the White-Beard Pirates well, and Blackbeard insinuated that it would be his.

It was to that extent, that a distracted Ace lost his fight against Blackbeard, sealing his fate. Roger's son had his thoughts divided by the girl.

Which led him to his current predicament: he was stuck well and truly in the depths of Impel Down and his life most likely to be ended at the Marine's whim. Having furtively told his cell-mate, who was none other than his sensei, Jimbei of the Sea; his meeting with Jiru, Ace held out as long as he could in surviving the prison's hell.

Thinking back on his time with his one and only love, Ace decided to invoke her true name and spend time with her before he died. By invoking her true name, the name she went by in other dimensions, Ace could create a spiritual-psychic bond and talk to her. The drawbacks were: they both had to be asleep, and alive. Bringing his mentor into the deal was something that hadn't occurred to Ace until he told Jimbei of the ritual. The fishman was extremely curious to meet the woman that had burned her way into Ace's heart and so Ace included the fishman in on the 'dream'.

His dream-thought process happened all within the span of his long, drawn out kiss. Ace smiled when Jiru stepped back and gave him a small smile.

"So….we're both dreaming?" the dark-chocolate colored-hair on her head rustled softly in the astral breeze. "I'm assuming you have something extremely important to tell me?"

They now were on a ship's deck, the ocean holding the floating barge up. Seagulls whirled and cawed their sounds in the sky above. He watched as the woman looked slowly around, as if the scenery change didn't surprise her. It should have, given the effort of Ace's dreaming mind to recreate the deck of the Moby Dick, Whitebeard's flagship.

"I do, babe, but are you sure it would carry over when you wake up?" Fire-Fist brought his hands up to her face, tracing the curve of her cheeks. They were now alone on the brown-flowered deck, Jimbei must have awoken.

"No, but dreams are powerful things." She answered, as if stating an obvious fact. "I don't know what I will remember when I wake up."

"You are so gorgeous, babe." He smiled. "Why not become my nakama?"

"Ace-san, thanks, but I'm still Luffy's nakama. I'm not going to work for some old-fart that I don't even know." She frowned, looking serious.

Throwing back his head in laughter, Ace felt lighter than he had for days. "You are amusing, Chibi-chan, I'll give you that."

"What is it you want to tell Luffy-san?" Jiru looked even more faux-mad as Ace laughed at her. "Tell me or I'll wake up and you'll lose your chance to say anything at all."

"Ok, Ok, Ok, don't get your socks in a knot." Ace stepped closer to her and smiled as he basked in her low-key natural beauty; her charming aura. "Blackbeard is the one to blame. Beware of Blackbeard; don't fight him, just run away."

"What?" Jiru looked blank. "Who is that?"

"Edward D. Teach. He knows about you and Luffy. He may try to hurt you both, since I'm the one who went after him." Ace's face changed into seriousness. "I don't want Luffy or you to fight him."

"No fighting Blackbeard, ok I got it. Anything else?"

"Naw, tell Luffy not to worry about me and stuff…." Ace couldn't stand it anymore; and jumped on her, kissing her mouth roughly.

It took minutes to get into her, and Ace loved every moment of it. Playing on her astral emotions, the fire-using pirate basked in the waves of energy that rolled off her luscious body. Building both of them up into a climax, Ace screamed her true name as the dream broke with a snap of a ringing bell.


	4. Morning

_Chapter 4: Morning_

Jiru bolted upward in the bed and shouted: "ACE!"

Across the rising-sunlit room, Brooke lowered the paper he was reading and screamed, causing her attention to snap on him. The treasure-hunter screamed back, the view of a screaming skeletal face sending her into a scare.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

On her right, the previously sleeping Usoppu woke up, and added his screaming – the poor, lying scaredy-cat sniper was surely startled. Next to the Sniper, Luffy bolted upright, looking around for the source of trouble. Seconds later, Sanji, Chopper and Nami all entered through via kicked-in door; also looking for the perpetrator that started their nakama screaming.

When all was screamed and done, the silence that followed was, to Jiru, most embarrassing and awkward. The rest of the crew looked about the room for the source of fright.

"Just what is going on here?" Nami's pulse raced in her voice.

Clutching her chest to help herself get over the scare Brooke gave her, she missed Luffy, Usoppu and Brooke all pointing accusingly at her.

"Jiru, are you ok!" Chopper down-sized himself and ran over to the bed. "Why'd you start screaming?"

"…" She didn't trust her voice yet, so she picked up Luffy's hat – which had tumbled off her shoulder and onto her lap – and planted it firmly on her head, using it to hide her face from the others. "I…Brooke startled me. I woke up and he started screaming, and I freaked out. Sorry."

"Oh, is that all?" Luffy relaxed from being surprised by the scenario. "You scared us all pretty good. Shishishishi!"

The rest of the crew un-tensed their rigid stances and sighed; coming down off the alert they put themselves in. It was then that Jiru noticed it was early morning, the sunlight – blessed sunlight where nobody had to hide in fear of being turned to ash without their shadows – peeked through the two windows that were on one side of the room. Shifting her weight so her injured foot wouldn't scream at her anymore, she bit her lip and squirmed under the scrutiny of six pairs of eyes.

"Jiru-chwan's so beautiful when she's shy!" Sanji oozed over to her bedside and knelt, grabbing one of her hands in his. "There's no need to fear for life, my fair Jiru, for Sanji is here to…"

"Oh, give it a rest, Sanji-kun." Nami was currently leaning against the doorframe, looking very flustered.

"Of course, my sweet Nami-swan!" Sanji switched from Jiru's side to Nami's; the same lovey-dovey look in his eyes.

"I should add another 60,000 Beri to your debt for scaring us like that, Jiru." Nami spoke with a half-hearted smirk on her lips.

"I said I was sorry! I wasn't expecting Brooke to be in here; or to start screaming…" she turned from Chopper's worried face to the newest Mugiwara member. "I am sorry, Brooke. I'm not used to your…ah…presence yet." An embarrassed pause. "I mean, you started screaming with your…skull, face…mouth; it startled me."

The afro-wearing skeleton picked himself up from the floor where he had fallen. Folding the newspaper elegantly, he bowed to the bed-ridden female and said:

"My heart is not offended by your fear of my face." Brooke straightened up; then gave a dramatic, comedy-worthy, pause. "Although, I have no heart or face! Skull Joke!"

The last comment sent the Luffy, Chopper, Usoppu and the skeleton into a laughing riot. The females gave the laughing quartet an angry and cross glance.

"It's going to be a long day, isn't it, Nami-san?" Jiru rolled her eyes sky ward as she sat on the bed. "Did Luffy REALLY ask this bonehead to be nakama?"

"Ah, very clever, mademoiselle, a Skull Joke!" Brooke's newest comment sent the trio on their knees, howling in more laughter. "By the way, may I see your panties?"

"HELL NO, YOU PERVERT!" Sanji snapped out of his love-induced trance and kicked Brooke's head. "STOP ASKING THAT!"

"A very long day…" Nami smirked as she answered the treasure hunter. The two females grinned at each other conspiratorially.

XXX

An hour later, Jiru was just finishing her last fruit and bread breakfast, so lovingly prepared by Sanji, when the previously absent Robin and Franky entered the kitchen-galley. The sun was still rising in the sky, and the door opened to let in fresh, blowing salty air. The pair of elder pirates stepped into the large kitchen and looked at the trio within.

"Oh, Good morning, Franiki, Robin-san." Jiru smiled her carefree smile at the two older pirates.

Sanji, still in his element, looked up and snorted a greeting to Franky and smiled once for the lovely Robin, before turning his focus back on cleaning the dishes. Luffy was at Jiru's feet, begging for the last three remaining grapes - the pirate captain was all for acting like a goofy dog to make his beloved treasure hunter laugh. He turned and waved to the entering duo. Robin laughed softly as Franky's blue brow rose in question.

"Jiru got scared this morning. I wanted to cheer her up." Luffy grinned as he stood up. "I was acting like a dog." Jiru watched the exchange from the corner of her eyes; rolling them at the boys' antics.

"Sure, Bro, sure." The blue-haired shipwright smiled and shook his head. "Anyway, it's ready."

"Good!" Luffy's grin grew larger as he turned to Jiru. "I wanna show you something; Franky, Usoppu and Chopper built something for you and Brooke."

Looking up at a large-grinning captain, she put down the gnarled, branchy stem of the grape bunch she had been eating. Normally, Luffy couldn't keep secrets from her when his mouth matched his mood; and nobody blamed him; but for the life of her, Jiru just couldn't deduce what Franky and the others could built that would give a strand of commonality between her and Brooke. Sighing and shoving the last bread roll into her mouth, she rotated her chair to fully face Luffy.

"Ok, Luffy-san, if you say so. Let's go see what they built. I really haven't a clue what it is though, we…I only just met Brooke, so I can't imagine what he and I would have in common."

"Good!" Luffy's smile got even bigger – was that even possible? The black-haired treasure hunter allowed Luffy to hoist her onto his back and carry her out of the kitchen. He made sure to keep her left foot immobile.

"Oi, thanks so much for the lovely fruity breakfast, Sanji-kun." Jiru called over her shoulder. "Keep up the awesome work!"

"Chibi-Mellorine-chan!" Sanji - last dry dish in hand - turned and buckled under the feminine praise. Jiru gasped when the cook dropped the plate, but exhaled when Robin's extra hands saved the object from its shattered fate.

"Oi, don't drop that plate, Cook-Bro." Franky's voice said as Luffy and Jiru left the kitchen.

"That silly Sanji, he's a great cook, possibly the best." Jiru spoke into Luffy's ear as he walked down the ramp to Thriller Bark ground. "But with three females on board…I shouldn't tease him so much."

"Shishishishishishi." Luffy laughed in mirth. "You are too clever. You, Robin and Nami have him wrapped around your fingers. You can get him to cook anything for you at any time. He kicks me out of the kitchen even if I step one foot in."

"Of course he does, Luffy, you'd eat the entire ship's food supplies in an hour if Sanji-kun wasn't there to guard it."

"Jiru…" Luffy whined. "That's not fair to blame me, I'm hungry a lot."

"I know, Luffy, I know. You're a dork." Jiru looked behind her as heard Franky come barreling down the gangplank.

"Oi, I almost forgot, I had the thing covered in tarp." The cyborg laughed as he joined them. "I wanted to uncover the thing myself when you and Brooke got there."

"Uh, what 'thing' is it, Franky?" Jiru shifted straighter against Luffy's back.

Her black strap-topped shirt with its black, billowy sleeves that covered her arms caught a breeze and swayed gently in it. Her arms hung comfortably around Luffy's shoulders and neck as a grey gust of air inflated her big sleeves, causing her to shift her grip on Luffy. It was a good thing, since Luffy twirled around and spoke to Franky; Jiru would have lost her balance and toppled them both over.

"NO! You can't ask that, Jiru-chan! I want Franky to show you what he built." The semi-serious pirate turned back around as the trio walked on the rocky ground of Thriller Bark.

The trip was a rerun of their earlier adventure, when half the Mugiwaras landed on the dark, fog-ridden island ship of Thriller Bark to find three missing-lost nakama – Chopper, Nami and Usoppu. The biggest difference was the lack of zombies - thankfully. Luffy had defeated Moria and freed the enslaved shadows. Jiru was relieved at having not to deal with the undead, moving bodies – popping out of the ground was disgusting enough to see. Watching zombies on TV or in books was nothing like seeing a real zombie: total horror on her disgust-o-meter.

"Ugh, what is that smell!" Jiru managed to cover her nose as they walked through the forest that they encountered at the beginning of their twisted adventure.

"The dead bodies." Franky answered. "Moria's shadow-control over the shadows vanished when Luffy defeated him. The bodies lost their animation and the thing that preserved them. They are now decaying."

"Oh that's just nasty shit." Jiru's eyes watered as they left the forest. "Um, oh yea. Where's Zoro?"

"Oh, Robin and Franky went to check on him earlier since Lola said he showed signs of waking up." Luffy answered.

"Who's Lola?"

"Oh yea you didn't meet her yet, she's Nami's new friend. She has pink hair. She helped us fight Oz, Moria and Kuma." Luffy informed her. "Throws one hell of a party, her crew does. It's a shame you had to sleep through it all, Jiru-chan, Brooke is a musician!"

"Ah, I see. You must be very happy to have your very own musician now, right?"

"YES!"

"Well, he certainly is very…unique." Her pausing words sounded forced.

"Don't worry, Jiru, you'll get used to him in no time! He's really awesome."

"I bet I will."

"We're here." Franky announced, breaking into the conversation. The skeleton was already there, waiting politely. Beside the elegantly black dressed skeleton nakama were Chopper and Usoppu. Luffy said that they helped Franky in building whatever it was Luffy wanted to show her, so it was appropriate they were here.

Before them, lay a huge grey tarp. It stood on a sparsely grassed knoll that led into a hill, since the upward slope indicated the area wasn't flat. The grey, moss-covered boulders had been cleared away or/and used – since chipped shards of rock were in a pile off to the side. The surrounding bush also had been cleared away, to make a hastily made clearing. The environment had been remade to host whatever tall creation Franky had covered with the tarp.

"Are you ready to see it!" Franky smiled as he approached the tarp-covered hill. Chopper, Usoppu and Brooke stood off to the side, waiting respectfully.

"Ok, sure." Jiru nodded and smiled back.


	5. Confessions

_Chapter 5: Confessions_

The sturdy-handed shipwright reached for the tarp and; with a dramatic flair, removed it from the large tombstone. The work of stone-art astounded her, and Jiru gasped. Next to her, she saw Brooke fall dramatically on his boney knees and exhaled loudly in awe. The larger of tombs was – presumably – worked in the likeness of the pirate ship the Mugiwaras had found Brooke on – the ship that the Rumba Pirates sailed on. Jiru, even though she had been soundly asleep during Brooke's monologue history of himself, basically knew the jest of it by reading his Aura. He had lost all but one of his nakama; half-century before; and his sole remaining nakama was the whale they had literally ran into upon entering the Grand Line: Laboon.

Instinctively, the treasure hunter also knew that Luffy had extracted the elder pirate's story and feelings. The Mugiwaras did everything for their crew and now it was Brooke's turn; as the combined intelligence of possibly two or more pirates planned to honor Brooke's fallen crew with a gravestone.

Beside the grand large tombstone sat a much smaller marker; made to honor the youngest pirate to join and die within the Mugiwaras; her genderless child. Being the size of a five-foot flag, the grey stone had the Straw-hat 'Jolly Roger' insignia carved into it.

"You made this, Franky?" she asked; her once happy mood turning sad once again.

"Yea, isn't it SUPAAAAAR!" the cyborg shipwright announced. Usoppu and Chopper looked pleased with themselves as well.

"It's…great." She lied, feeling her eyes become watery once more.

"Oh!" Brooke wailed in awe once again and jumped to his feet. "It's marvelous!"

Luffy, sensing her mood-change through his skin, lowered her gently onto the ground as he turned to her.

"Are you ok, Jiru-chan?" he asked. The doctor, sniper and shipwright all looked at her; causing her to get even more teary-eyed.

"It's…I've never done this before. I never thought I'd lose someone that was growing inside me, Luffy." Her emotional aura swelled into a confused sadness; releasing hormones to instruct her tear ducts to activate. Falling, and catching herself on an air-pad, Jiru began to cry; slowly telling the world – Luffy – what she felt.

"I never lost a baby before, and I'm so confused." She managed the force the words from her watery throat. "When Kaku raped me, I was so scared because it felt so damn good. But it wasn't…it couldn't feel good, because it was rape, right?"

"When Sanji and Franky and Soge-king…" In Jiru's mind, the masked Usoppu would always be Sogeking, the King of the Snipers. Luffy had believed Sogeking to be another person and, in treasure hunter's mind, it would be that way to, even though she knew better. "…rescued me, I felt so terrified that they would hate me because I did it with Kaku. Kaku was really hot, my body wanted it."

Vaguely aware that the gravesite became host to more presences – Nami, Sanji and Robin – Jiru didn't stop crying out her long-time bottled up emotions. She continued on with tears in her eyes.

"But I couldn't stop him, Luffy; Kaku looked like he was going to kill me if I said no. It was all I could do to not go crazy."

"Sanji knew what happened when he saw me; Sogeking did too. But you all were trying to save Robin that I didn't want to get in the way. I'm so sorry Robin; I could have saved you if I was more focused." Jiru finally acknowledged the gathered pirates and used her black, billowing sleeves to rub her dripping nose. "I didn't know what to do, so I just kept quiet and tried to help save you. I was so caught up in the adventure that I completely forget what Kaku did to me. It wasn't until I got lost in Enies Tower that I faced Kaku again, only Zoro-kun was there backing me up. Kaku asked me if I wanted to do it again; and taunted Zoro that he raped me."

"Jiru…" Nami's voice, heavy and somber, interrupted her.

"NO! I couldn't do a damned thing, Nami-chan! I was so pissing torn, I couldn't fight. I only got in Zoro-chan's way and messed up. I was thinking how it might feel to do it again with Kaku; it felt so good the first time. It turned me on just looking at him; he was so smug and strong."

It was here that Jiru finally lifted her aching, tear-stained eyes to look at her friends. "I wonder if it was my Reiki-Reiki power that gave life to my bad thoughts. If somehow, by thinking about those dark, sick fantasies; Kaku caught them and did it to me."

"That's ridiculous, Jiru." Usoppu broke the silence and divided the distance between them. "You know that's impossible; making somebody's thoughts influence reality. That bastard chose his own path, and received his consequences, you were the victim." The Sniper gained points in standing; trying to comfort the girl he managed to connect to from the start. "We all know you helped in the fight against the CP9, using your foresight to assist us in certain events. Even if Kaku was hot and turned you on; you didn't do anything, he did it to you. Thoughts, good or bad, are just thoughts until you act upon them; you know that."

"Usoppu-kun…" Jiru sniffled.

"Sniper-kun is absolutely right." Robin had finally managed to hear the complete story from the last remaining Mugiwara that had rushed to her rescue months ago when they had their battle against Enies Lobby and CP9. A twinge of guilt flashed through her, only to be squashed by rational thinking: it was not her fault at all. There were too many events in the scenario to blame herself for – even though they weren't her fault at all. "Thinking things alone won't make them happen, Collector-san."

The raven-haired archeologist stepped up next to Usoppu and then extended her real hand to lie on the treasure hunter's shoulder. "I know my own thoughts about wanting to die then never, thankfully, came true."

"Oh, Robin-san, I'm so glad you didn't die." Jiru's eyes became watery again as she instinctively wanted to comfort her friend. Her hands curled into fists on the edge of the compressed air-pad. "I know I wasn't born on this world, but living with you guys was an adventure until Kaku did that to me. It was like the thrill of the adventure stopped, I felt like curling up and dying."

"WWWHAAAAAA! Jiru-chan!" Chopper ran up, jumped on the air-pad and into her arms. "Don't die, Jiru!" The reindeer cried freely as he wrapped his small arms around hers.

"Chopper…I'm not going to die…it was a figure of speech." Jiru sat back on her air pad, which was molded by her willpower, to allow her left foot to hang freely in the air beneath it.

"That story is so sad!" The loud, crying voice of Franky broke into the group circle. The others looked over and saw, lo and behold, a crying Franky – who always wept openly at such heart-rending dialogues.

"Franky, stop crying like a wuss." Jiru giggled out between sniffles.

"IDIOT! I'm not crying; you triple-short idiot." The blue-haired cyborg turned his wet face away from them and took a few seconds to compose himself. He always poked fun at her short stature, she was the shortest one of the crew, second shortest, if a small Chopper was counted. "You're the one that's crying like a baby."

"Bastard, don't call Jiru-chwan an idiot!" Sanji leapt to her defense, and growled at the simpering cyborg.

"Sanji-kun, shut up." Nami sounded amused and exasperated at the same time.

"Anything for my Nami-swaaaan!" Sanji bounced back to his navigator's side and cooed over her.

The floating girl laughed a few times and looked at comic bunch, once again using her sleeve to dry her dripping nose on. Chopper coughed twice and looked up at the treasure hunter. "I'm sorr-"

"NO!" Luffy's stern voice cut her off. The black-haired pirate had listened intently to Jiru's sorrowful confessions without a peep. Now he stepped up to cut her self-thrown pity party off. "Don't be sorry for being you!"

"L-Luffy…" Her face looked slightly surprised. Indeed, the first six of the Mugiwaras (minus Robin, Franky and Brooke) had gotten to know her personality and quirks, and knew how to handle her socially. "You're right; I told you why I was sad and upset. I don't want to make it worse by making you worry more. I won't feel sorry for myself now."

"Oh, Jiru-san, you are too silly." Nami – having loath-hated her treasure-hunting nakama for reasons that Arlong had been ultimately responsible for – stepped up next to the shorter female and wrapped her bare, gorgeous arms around the girl's shoulders. "You and Luffy both don't worry enough about yourselves."

The orange-haired navigator laughed and looked at the rest of them. "Seriously, you were worried about how Luffy would react, and asked us to wait until later to tell him you were raped." The word sat bitterly on the gold-talking tongue. "Now it doesn't really matter, does it? I am so sorry you lost your child, but life goes on."

"She's right, you know." Usoppu stepped back from the group and gave a thumbs-up pose.

"Yea!" Chopper smiled.

"Nami-swan is soooo beauty when she cares." Sanji was acting like a love-sick puppy again.

"Just leave it to Captain Usoppu the Great to fix things!" the grinning sniper nodded, half-grinning, to Luffy and Jiru. "The Great and Wonderful Usoppu has the perfect plan." –A mischievous glint appeared in his sharp-shooting eyes.– "Jiru can have sex with Zoro again, or Luffy or even the handsome Captain Usoppu, and then have another baby!"

The awkward silence that followed was as thick as the once-present Thriller Bark fog.


	6. Mourning

_Chapter 6: Mourning_

To say chaos broke lose would an understatement. Nami was first to break the awkward silence, followed by Sanji, Franky and then Chopper. Slipping deftly – naturally – into her killer-bitch mode, she advanced on the perverted Sniper.

"PERVERT!" The enraged navigator screeched in shocked fury. "What make you think she wants another baby? Usoppu; I'm going to kill you!"

Franky, being closest, jumped in to gently restrain the blood-seeking woman. Sanji, moving seconds after his beloved Nami, also radiated the intent to kick Usoppu's ass.

"BASTARD! Why would you say such bull? Why wasn't I including on the list?" The blonde-haired pervert cook was split-minded over the Sniper's kinky plan. "Like hell I'd let Jiru-chwan sleep with that marimo-bastard again."

Chopper, having gasped at the audacity of Usoppu's and Sanji's words jumped in front of Sanji, changing into his large, humanistic mode to stop the cook from killing the sniper. Robin, the normally cool and collected woman of the crew, even had her mouth open in an expression of surprise; her sharp, dark eyes wide and staring at the long-nosed young male. Brooke, having kept quite during Jiru's confession of soul – being the new Mugiwara after all; he knew nothing of their past adventures – gaped like a fish at the sniper's words. Usoppu, who once was posed proud and confident, buckled and turned into a cowering hunch.

"OI! Nami, wai-wai-wait. I was…it was a joke!" The frantic gestures of the fourth crewmate increased as he brought his hands up to defend himself. "I was just trying to be funny!"

"Funny!" Nami was still hell-bent on physically teaching Usoppu to open his mouth with such trash that she was still screaming; her face taking on a ghastly visage. "If you think those zombies and ghosts were scary, I'll show you something!"

"Oi, Nami, don't kill Usoppu." Chopper interjected as Sanji finally collected himself enough to take control of his temper. "It's not worth it."

"I'LL SHOW THAT PERVERT HOW SCARY I CAN BE WHEN HE SAYS STUPID SHIT LIKE THAT!" Nami loudly announced and ducked under Franky's large bulk and advanced, once again, towards the trembling Sniper. She had her Clima-Tact pieces out and connected, holding them tightly with her fists. "I'm going to clobber you!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! She's going to kill me!" Usoppu finally broke down, turned and ran towards the ship. "I suddenly have the 'I-can't-stay-here-or-I'll-die' Disease!" The now-screeching in fear Sniper quickly left the gravesite, being chased by Nami, then Sanji, followed by Chopper and Franky.

"Nami-Swan!" Sanji was heard calling as he leapt away after his gorgeous navigator. "I'll help you beat the pervert if you want me to!"

"Hay, don't be killing the man for being a pervert." Franky's words added to the mêlée of confusion. "Being an open pervert is good, right?"

This all happened within a minute's span, and as the majority of the pirate group exited as quickly as they had entered; Luffy, Jiru, Robin and Brooke were left standing in stunned confusion.

Jiru's face was stunned, not having enough time to react to Usoppu's idea before Nami chased him off. Robin had managed to close her mouth, and intently watched Jiru and Luffy for their reactions. The archeologist knew there was something between the two, but couldn't quite confirm her nagging suspicions.

Luffy, being Luffy, looked confused at the whole thing. Having tilted his head sideways, he had the appearance of being deep in thought, his eyes trailing after his retreated nakama. Brooke, being Brooke, still stood with his mouth agape, and emitting sounds of disbelief at the sudden squall of kinky suggestions. All of them still remained unspoken.

"We…we should go check on them, Captain-san." Robin softly broke the silence. "After all, Shipwright-san built this place for Skeleton-san and Collector-san to properly mourn."

"What?" Luffy asked.

Snapping Luffy's attention to her, the raven-haired pirate woman smiled her knowing smile. "We should allow them to mourn properly before we depart Thriller Bark."

"Oh. R-right!" Luffy smiled once at Jiru and placed a hand on his straw-hat covered head. He turned to Brooke. "We'll be back on the ship when you two are done, ok?"

Without waiting for an answer, Luffy bounded off, his evident joy of wanting to see the outcome of Nami's temper at Usoppu plainly written in his movements.

"L-LUFFY, HEEEEELP MEEEE!" A distant fearful cry echoed back through the forest.

"COMING Usoppu!" Luffy hollered back, with Robin following him.

XXX

**Minutes Earlier:**

In the cluster of gnarled trees nearby, an awakened and bandaged Zoro watched and listened. He had finally found his way to the place where the two weaker Shadow-Victim pirates had pointed him in. Lazy and Idiot (Zoro's name for the two men that both were the large, pink-haired woman's first mates) had told him that the blue-haired pirate had built a grave-shrine for the walking skeleton whom had lost his crew so long ago. It made sense to Zoro that Franky should build a grave for the long-ago deceased for their newest crewmate; Brooke.

However Idiot (the man with the unturned nose and wavy brown hair) had managed to mention that Franky had also built a grave for the dead baby, before his partner, Lazy (the man with the black forehead mask), told him to keep quiet about that subject. It mattered little as Zoro threatened to beat the truth out of the pair. They ended up telling him of what had happened after he passed out from taking Luffy's pain. The Tyrant Kuma had approached the treasure hunter, Jiru, and offered to abort her dying child. After a brief argument, Jiru took Kuma's offer and allowed the Shichibukai to repel the living-dying force within her womb. Cold, icy fury had swept through the swordsman after hearing this, and turning on his bandaged heel, raced towards the newly built gravesite.

When he finally arrived there (after getting lost twice) he found everyone there, playing audience to the crying treasure hunter. She wept as she told them everything that had happened on the Sea Train. Her words hit Zoro's heart far deeper than before. However, the attentive swordsman noticed that she managed to confess only half the story to her captain, before the conversation literally ran away – she hadn't told them what had happened between him and her that night at Water 7 after the battle. Usoppu had opened his big mouth and managed to piss everyone off. Nami, the Shit-Cook, Franky and Chopper all chased each other away from the clearing; leaving Brooke, Luffy, Robin and a still wet-eyed Jiru behind.

Thankfully, Robin mentioned that she and Luffy should leave Brooke and Jiru to mourn, and wait for them on the ship. They left also, finally giving the man-made clearing some peace and quiet.

Zoro watched as the walking pile of bones turned to the treasure hunter and managed to elicit a physical, open-handed slap – most likely asking to see her panties – before turning towards the graves and motion to the girl to join him in paying respects to the dead.

Sharp, detail-catching eyes watched as she positioned herself on her air-pad so that she could properly mourn what she…they had lost. Zoro shook his head and decided to join them; he too, had lost a part of himself in battle. Some nameless marine bastard had eaten some kind of Rust-ability devil fruit and used that power to ruin one of three of his prized swords. Yubashiri had indeed fallen in battle and here, of all places, was as good as any to put the noble sword to rest. Walking into the glade as Brooke was playing a soft, mournful piece on the violin, Zoro plunked right down between the walking pile of bones and the floating treasure hunter.

"Yo." He said.

"Ah. Roronoa Zoro, you surprised me." Brooke answered and lowered his instrument.

"…" The female said nothing.

"Sorry, I kind of over slept." Zoro sat cross legged, after thrusting the sheathed Yubashiri into the ground in front of the smaller grave.

"What is that…?" Brooke asked, looking at the katana in the ground.

"A dead katana, Yubashiri. Since this is a place for burying the past, I'd like to take the opportunity to give it a proper farewell."

"…"

"Ah, I see." Brooke, still sitting taller than the swordsman, looked over the head of moss-green hair towards the still silent, floating treasure hunter. She currently had both her eyes and lips closed; and mimicked the swordsman – hands placed together with upward fingers; holding steady in front of her face. Or was the swordsman mimicking her? Brooke chuckled.

"Hm?"

"Ah, that's right; I wanted to tell you I'll be sailing with this crew from now on." Holding the violin in one hand and the bow in the other, the aged pirate glanced at the swordsman.

"Huh? Is that right? Well, bad luck to you, then." A sword-sharp eye opened and glanced over to the talking bone pile on his right.

"Oh?"

"Being in this crew…it can be a bit of a handful, you know." Zoro responded. "Carving up enemies, saving damsels in distress…" Here, he opened his other eye and looked pointedly at the female on his left.

"…" The third member in the clearing furrowed her brows in annoyance.

"It all can get pretty wild. Are you able to handle it?" Zoro finished.

"Absolutely! I will do my best, until my dying day!" Brooke straightened up and laughed freely. "Ah, but, I've already died though…YOHOHOHOHOHOH!"


	7. Argument

_Chapter 7: Argument_

"SHUT UP!" Jiru's angry voice finally interrupted the male conversation; echoing through the grey, dead glade.

"Ah, she speaks." Zoro quipped playfully at the Golden Thief. "For a few seconds there, I thought Oz had stomped on your tongue."

"I SAID SHUT UP, you idiot!" Jiru finally broke her self-imposed rigid air-padded sitting stance and threw herself onto Zoro's wounded form, crying angrily.

"You almost f-ing died back there, how can you be so…so…cheerful." The treasure hunter was once again shedding tears; but the tears were full of anger and concern.

"Relax. I did what I had to do. There was no way I was going to let that bastard Shichibukai take Luffy." Zoro winced as the short pirate clung to his torso. "Now would you please stop hugging me, it's embarrassing."

A resounding smack echoed through the clearing; making Brooke gasp in surprise. The black-haired, hazel-lagoon-eyed female had launched her palm against the swordsman's face, leaving behind a stunning red mark; palm-shaped.

"DON'T be like that! You moron…you idiot. What would Luffy think if his best friend died?" Jiru ranted at the stunned swordsman. "Why did you sacrifice yourself like that?"

"ME?" Zoro snapped out of his stunned fugue and shouted back at her. "What the hell, would you have had Sanji take my place? Like the Shit Cook could do anything better."

"His name is NOT Shit Cook. His name is Sanji; and I didn't want Sanji to die either. I was on the verge of kicking the Tyrant's ass myself!"

The two were head to head in their newly created argument; Zoro was on his feet, clutching his trio of katana while Jiru growled tearfully on her air pad, leveled with his eyes.

"Yea right; as you laid there on the ground, draped stupidly over Luffy's body with your stupid foot caught under a building sized boulder."

Brooke stood off to the side, looking on helplessly as his new nakama began arguing. A fleeting thought raced through the skeletal mind: how unfortunate that nakama would be reduced to arguing at a place of mourning. But on the next cerebral synapse, he thought how lucky he was to be part of a crew that felt comfortable to do such an outrageous thing.

"Ah, I'll…go on ahead to inform Luffy-san that you two will be back shortly." The black-suited skeleton's comment went unheard as insulting names flew back and forth. The elderly pirate knew this was a prime time to not interfere with personal issues of his new nakama. Backing up quietly, he bowed one last time to his dead nakama's grave site and left. He had no regrets in leaving his previous nakama behind, turning to become part of a new one.

Zoro, his eyes still sharp as ever, noted the skeletal departure from the corner of his vision as his Golden Thief continued to berate his intelligence. The swordsman decided to cut to the chase.

"Jiru!"

"What!"

"Shut up!"

"Make me, you idiot."

Zoro gritted his teeth together and stepped closer to her, wrapping his semi-bandaged arms around her shoulders.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" He asked. "You can't be this mad over something dumb I did. You know I don't die that easily."

The Golden Treasure Hunter, being startled out of her half-hearted ranting stiffened a few moments before leaning bone-lessly into Zoro's arms. Another wave of tears poured from her already wet eyes as she cried bitterly.

"It's gone, Zoro-chan, my baby is gone."

"Yea, I heard."

"I killed it!" She wailed. "I killed the baby, Zoro, I'm so sorry."

Zoro let her cry out her frustrations for a while, his body standing rigidly on the grey rocky ground. He let his other senses drift out to collect information. There was nothing much to feel moving around this god-forsaken plot of Thriller Bark but insects and air currents. Looking up the larger tombstone, Zoro noticed the detail of carving work put into the rock. Franky must have put little effort into it, but still produced high-quality grade work anyway. Moving his black eyes to the smaller of the tombstones, he sighed mentally and turned back to the weeping mess he held. She had been propped against his chest and had her arms curled up between them.

Zoro felt some love for the short, shy female, and didn't care for the Shit Cook or the others to know; but when they were alone like this, he felt warmth in his heart and, sometimes, his cock. He growled, agitated and exhaled another breath. When the Mugiwara's Treasure Hunter was like a crying priss of a female, it complete annoyed him.

"You can stop crying now and tell me what happened to you and the…baby." Dropping all pretense of being a macho bad-ass now, Zoro lowered his husky voice to ask his question.

Sniffling and forcing herself to cease her useless weeping, Jiru slowly pulled away from his wet shoulder and quickly looked the Santoryuu user in the eye before looking down to the ground – a sign of how uncomfortable she was with her thoughts and/or guilt.

"I…I think it was Ryuuma that did it."

"Did what?" Zoro further questioned.

"Killed the baby."

"How?"

"When Luffy, Robin, Franky and I entered the huge carnival room – after you had gone missing in the hallway – Franky pushed me back into the stone hallway to save me. There was an armored zombie with a sword; and it had dropped from the ceiling, trying to skewer me with the sword."

"At first I was mad at Franky, but when I saw the reason why he pushed me, I was totally grossed out. It was another zombie. I didn't interfere much, but cheered Franky on as he fought with the armored zombie. Franky won of course, but when I went to stand up and join them again, that damned mounted Zom-Pig sealed the end of the hallway off with a stone wall. I got separated from the rest."

Jiru paused, sitting back on her pad of formed air-energy to bring her hands to wrap around her arms. Looking up again at Zoro, she sighed and used her black sleeve again to clean her nose with an audible sniffle.

"I was pissed and kind of scared, because you had vanished in the hall minutes before. The hall was dark and creepy, I got freaked out. After I couldn't get the wall to move, I went after the pig; who had been sitting there laughing at me. The zom-pig ran really fast for something with a frame stuck on its body. I tried to follow it to make it open the wall, but got lost. I didn't know what to do next, so I wondered around, trying to find a way out. I ran into the zombie that had Brooke's shadow. I got grossed out since I touched it, and made the mistake of turning around to run away."

The only indication of the swordsman's anger upon hearing this was the tightening of his grip on her shoulders. He had attempted to give the female a crash course in swordsmanship during their brief, recuperating time after Luffy had defeated the Shichibukai Crocodile in the Alabasta country.

Back then, the Mugiwaras had been hard-pressed in battle; dodging not only the forces of Baroque Works, but angered rebels clashing with the Alabastian royal arms – in the desert, sandy environment. When Jiru had asked Zoro of his one on one battle with Mr. 1, the right-hand man of Sir Crocodile, he felt a need to instruct her in ways to defend against a sword.

Roronoa was pleased when she showed how she took the lessons to heart and held her own against overwhelming, sharp sword-wielding marines on the Enies Lobby Bridge of Justice; adventures later. Albeit, she did had a Devil-Fruit advantage, using condensed air as shields to cover her blind spots; but the treasure hunter had used some of the physical tricks to keep herself from being sliced.

To make a stupid mistake and forget how to properly guard against a sword-wielder was something that left Zoro angry. She had paid a terribly price; the loss of their unborn child.

"The jerk moved so fast and used his… that Shuusui… to get a cheap gut shot in with the hilt. I swear I felt my stomach tear, Zoro." Her voice brought Zoro back to reality as he barely caught her words.

"When I woke up next, I knew something was wrong, because my stomach was on fire. I prayed to god that nothing had happened, but I knew that the zombie had injured me inside. I tried to fool myself into thinking that it was something else, but forgot about it when Brooke fought Ryuuma."

Zoro sighed once more as he sensed the two shadow-rescued pirates, Idiot and Lazy, enter the clearing. The treasure hunter wasn't aware of the two pirates, but Zoro was. He shifted his grip on the female to make it less personal, so the pair wouldn't see something they weren't meant to.

"When Kuma finished talking to you, he came back, and I thought the jerk was coming for Luffy again. But he was talking to me. He told me that my baby was dying, and me with it. I panicked, not knowing whether to doubt his word or not. I didn't want to die, so I let Kuma expel the injury in me and the dying fetus."

Jiru had managed to continue her story without crying too much, but as she thought more about the horrible event, her eyes leaked tears once more.

"I'm…I was going to use the child's life force to make you live, Zoro. I wanted to be free of the thing at the same time."

"How were you going to use the thing's life force?" Not very knowledgeable on the workings of her Aura-Aura Power, Zoro looked down at the tiredly weeping girl.

"I don't know! I just didn't want you to die! Luffy would have been so sad." The Golden Thief answered bitterly. She shoved herself away from Zoro and growled. "I didn't want you to die; I didn't want to die either, so I let Kuma remove the kid. I'm relieved…and sad…it's gone. I don't know how I would have told Luffy if I left the poor thing in me."

Zoro stepped back and glared at the two eaves-droppers, motioning them to leave. Thankfully, the pair did, both of them still awe-shocked at the pirate-group that saved them.

"Don't you think Luffy would have cared that you were pregnant?" Zoro's voice rose a notch in volume. "Did you think he would hate a kid from rape?"

"What?"

"Even if you hadn't been raped, and had consented sex with that bastard, Kaku, Luffy would sell his dream to make you feel safe and happy." The green-haired first mate narrowed his vision onto the girl. She sat on her barely visible, mirage-like Aura-pad, looking confused and vulnerable. "Did you even think, at LEAST once, that Luffy might NOT hate you for being a wanton woman."

"Zoro, I'm not a-"

"SHUT UP!" He shouted at her. Now the swordsman was slightly upset – his words weren't coming out right. He didn't know how to explain his anger. Roronoa placed his hand instinctively on his trio of swords hilts sticking out of the wide green harikama that adored his waist and paced back and forth in front of her. "Luffy doesn't care about that, and if you think for one bloody second that you are going to do something stupid like using your kid's life-aura – or your own – to save me or Sanji or any of the others, think again. Luffy loves you."

"What?"

"He may not show it, but the fool has loved you from the beginning, after first meeting you in Cocoyashi Village." Zoro growled as he confessed this knowledge. "The idiot didn't know how to show his feelings, so he just asked you to join his crew."

"Zoro, Luffy's always been like that."

"I know." The Santoryuu wielder now was frustrated even more. Jiru was right. His captain always shown the same level of love and affection for any new nakama he decided to choose. But Zoro knew; he knew from watching Luffy's little habits that the extra-worldly treasure hunter stood out more in Luffy's book. Zoro wouldn't be a very good first-mate if he did not know the moods of his captain. The idiot captain had always been friendlier, sillier and more caring towards the girl. It was a problem that bothered him. Zoro had fallen for the less-than five-foot tall girl too.

"Zoro, are…are you ok?" her voice once again snapped the first mate out of a thinking daze.

"What? Yea." His level of frustration sunk as her wet-lipped smile cut to the core of his heart. Yes, it was true that Luffy loved her; and Zoro did too. Only, his love wasn't pure, it was built on something that he felt for another person early in his life: Kuina. He shook his head, not wanting to fall into a daze of recollection.

"Let's go back; the others should be ready to cast off." He growled.

"Oh, ok…" she murmured. "I still am mad at you, you jerk. I won't forgive you if you nearly die again."

There is was again, her flippant attitude about pretending to care for his sake. She was most likely to be concerned for Luffy's peace of mind. She most likely cared for her captain too – the question was…just how much did she care?

"Chibi-brat, just be quiet and follow me back to the ship." Zoro growled before stalking off away from the grave site. Jiru sighed, bowed one last time to the two grave stones and floated after Zoro.


	8. Thriller Bark

_Chapter 8: Thriller Bark_

Floating quietly behind Zoro, Jiru's mind was allowed to wander; as it was so good at wandering. The morose female thought back to the point when it all went awry.

XXX

A month after escaping a cannon-throwing Garp at Water 7, the Mugiwaras were still enjoying their new ship, the Thousand Sunny-Gou, and all its new features. Luffy, Chopper and Usoppu all heightened the excitement as they acted like kids with new toys. Nami, Robin and Jiru all were in good spirits as the three oddballs went around acting like idiots.

It was around noon; Jiru, Franky, Robin and Sanji were all in the below tank room, conversing with each other when their first carnivore appeared in the built-in nine-hundred gallon tank that was one of many features on the Sunny-gou – Franky proudly continued to flaunt his beautiful ship. Jiru stood up, startled when the carnivorous shark was dropped into the tank from above and counted out - loudly - as her pretty fish collection was eaten, one by one.

The treasure hunter glared hatefully at the shark when it ate the last of her beautiful fish, causing the love-sick Cook to scream at the pair of idiots that had perpetrated the act of shark-catching. Jiru joined the shout-fest, and told Luffy they weren't keeping the shark, since it ate all the other fish. It was decided to eat the shark; poor shark.

Hours later, Luffy shouted back at Jiru for an entirely different reason. Having retreated to the Female quarters, the captain wanted her to use her innate treasure sense to inspect the barrel that Zoro had spotted floating towards the ship. Telling Luffy that it wasn't treasure was no help; since it was suggested the contents of the flagged barrel was probability something else, like sake or food.

Showing no interest in the barrel's speculative contents, she – like the rest of the crew – was shocked when opened barrel shot off a flare. Had the treasure hunter known what would ensue after the barrel flare; she would have lied and given the trap-float a bad rap – but like a knife, the events that followed where both good and bad; an adventure. She no longer had the power of foresight; having traded it for her Devil Fruit powers. Now she relied on her wit and smarts.

It wasn't long when the Nami-predicted storm came upon them; driving them off course. Of course, the brave captain Usoppu started ranting about ghosts and demons that resided in the Florian Triangle; and to get her petty revenge over the fish-eating shark, Jiru added to his fears by voicing the stories of ghost ships and walking dead sailors.

By the time the long-nosed sniper was reduced to a simpering mess, no one expected the surrounding pea-soup thick fog to divest its secrets; the huge wreck of a ship loomed out of the fog. The hulking gigantic ship - three times bigger than the Sunny-gou – had everyone screaming in fear; as a voice on the ship began singing.

As the ship drifted by the Sunny-Gou; they all saw it: the standing skeleton on the port side. This, of course, totally caught Luffy's interests as he suggested they board the ship; and after referring to the Golden Thief's still intact innate 'treasure-sense' – which was negative – he took Sanji and Nami with him to check out the dead ship.

Seconds ticked into minutes into a half-hour before the trio returned with the living skeleton; who introduced itself as 'Dead-Bones' Brooke. Even though he spoke like a gentleman, Jiru still freaked out; hiding behind Franky. She, like the rest of the crew, was shocked at Luffy for bringing such a freaky surprise back. Both Usoppu and Chopper acted in suite; being clad in their anti-ghost suits and throwing out purity charms.

Since the tall skeleton was on the ship; the only plausible option was to get to know him; as the walking skeleton demanded to eat. Being in the same, spooked state as Usoppu and Chopper, Jiru hid behind her friends as the skeleton sat at the table within the grandly built galley. She agreed completely with Usoppu and Chopper, waiting for a chance to accuse the skeleton of being evil. The walking skeleton and its lack of muscles and skin were unnerving for the treasure hunter.

She listened with a leery ear as Brooke explained his history; the why and how he came to reside on the huge ghost ship and just how lonely he was. Just as Jiru was starting to feel sorry for hating the skeleton, Brooke turned to her and asked her to see her lovely panties. Both Sanji and Zoro hit him in the head, making him laugh and spout 'skull joke'. However, he managed to break the ice that stood between them; making the treasure hunter less nervous in his weird, hollow-socket gaze.

After the meal, Brooke continued to explain how he became a skeleton; which was the power of the _Yomi-Yomi no Mi_, the Revived Human accursed fruit. His soul had gotten lost when it returned from the afterlife, and took a while to find its body – which, by the time the spirit found the body, it was just bones. Then, on questioning the ability of skeleton having hair, a mirror was brought into the calculation; which sent them all into a tailspin: Brooke had no reflection.

Usoppu's scream of zombie-vampire sent the crew into a spaz-out before the conversation could continue. Brooke then explained how his shadow was stolen and this prevented him from ever entering the world of light – a world where the sun shone. Brooke refused to state the party involved in stealing his shadow, saying the person was much too strong to fight against.

So it was at the end of his story and a song that the spying ghost was noticed; both by Brooke and Jiru. After the crew experienced a rumbling sea-quake, the walking skeleton ran onto the deck; as they all did, to discover the huge, spooky island looming over them. Brooke called the horrid thing 'Thriller Bark', an island ship that hunts pirates. The skeleton then asked if the ship was under 'surveillance'; explaining the barrel-flare trap. The Mugiwaras berated Luffy for opening it, the pirate just laughed it off.

They watched as Brooke departed, stating his joy in meeting them. After giving his flirtatious panty line to Jiru once again – earning a boot to the head – Brooke revealed a special ability and ran off on the sea water.

Jiru promptly turned to Nami and begged her to find a place to hide, because there was another adventure looming in front of them. The treasure hunter didn't want to go on this particular adventure at all. Usoppu agreed with her, as did Chopper. Robin, however, stated she enjoyed the 'thrills' and it was decided – they would stick around to see what would happen.

The trouble started when Franky introduced the Mini-Merry; built with the head that Jiru had rescued from the Merry-Gou's old steering rod before the ship went down. Nami, Chopper and Usoppu were the first to test it. The Golden Thief was hiding in her room; freaking out about the thick, spooky aura. She was adamant about staying hidden until they all escaped from the mouth-gate that had trapped them.

It was the invisible hand the dragged her out of her room that sealed their fate. There was an invisible force tormenting them all; as one of Zoro's swords went flying at Luffy. Luckily, Jiru used her compressed aura field to block; saving Luffy from being skewered.

The Golden Thief was now on guard; having been extradited from her hiding spot by the invisible force. However, she was unable to pinpoint an attacker as Luffy told her that Nami, Chopper and Usoppu had taken the Mini-Merry to shore; and had gotten lost in the fog. She told Luffy that even fog could get lost in the fog that had place itself between the Sunny-gou and the presumed shore. It was a majority vote to go ashore to rescue them.

Minutes passed again as the drifting ship became entangled in a huge-spider web; and another set of minutes before the remaining Mugiwaras were ready to disembark to search for their missing trio of friends. Robin had found the first lead; as the Mini-Merry was parked roughly against the wall; making it possible for the missing trio to have crash-landed and fallen over the ledge. Making their way down into the canyon of bones, Jiru used the marine's cape she stole back on Enies Lobby to float on via her compressed Aura-pad. The treasure hunter refused to walk on the ground; as the carpet of unknowns and bones went beyond her 'grossness' meter.

The island continued to disgust her as they discovered an undead Cerberus; which was two parts dog and one part fox. Voicing her astonished-disbelief when Luffy wanted to 'tame' it, Jiru could only laugh and blanch as the thing tried to bite Luffy's head off. Her captain promptly vented his rage at being bitten; and tamed it.

Having 'tamed' the undead Cerberus and using it as a mode of transportation, they moved on. It was when the treasure hunter was questioning Luffy's habit of cleanliness for the eighth time; their exploration came upon their next undead beings – a unicorn and a man-faced tree. It was the Golden Thief's turn to become excited as the zombie-unicorn moved. Robin and Franky laughed at the treasure hunter's sense of 'fantasy' as Luffy and she asked the two zombies to be their nakama.

Franky, Sanji and Zoro yelled at her and Luffy for asking the two zombies to be a part of their crew; which sent Sanji shouting at Franky and Zoro for yelling at Jiru. Robin laughed at their interest in the dead unicorn; as the dead equine stared at them while it was pouring its zombie-tree friend a cup of tea. The idea of making them nakama fell flat; as Luffy and Franky defeated the two undead beasts and moved on.

Sanji and Zoro were still lecturing Luffy on why NOT to invite random creatures to be their nakama, when the ghosts reappeared. The two females laughed when Luffy got out his ghost-catching gear; which consisted of a back-pack and a butterfly net. Events didn't go the way Luffy wanted it to; and the net didn't catch the ghost. Instead; the ghost went through him, Franky and Zoro; leaving them feeling utterly depressed and sad. Sanji, Jiru and Robin noted this and told them that their spirits sunk if the ghost made contact.

Being extremely riled-up after the effect wore off; Luffy vowed to destroy the ghosts and walked on. The Golden Thief was too busy laughing at Sanji and Zoro's post-ghost bickering to notice when they entered the graveyard. It was when Luffy pushed a rising zombie back into its grave that caught her attention; making her squirm in disgust. Yet, as even more zombies popped out of the ground, the grossed-out treasure-hunter freaked out enough to send the fighters into action.

After defeating them, Luffy asked the zombies if they had seen Nami, Chopper or Usoppu anywhere, and if they did, where they went. Luffy's treasure hunter decided to distance herself from the grossing stench of the animated-carnage and levitated herself up to get a view of the surrounding area. When nothing was forth-coming in the thick fog, she returned to Luffy's group only to find him talking to yet another zombie. Only the zombie was a decrepit old man without a shadow, like Brooke. His story told them that Gecko Moria, a Shichibukai, stole everyone's shadows and now none of the victims could go into the sunlight. The old man was the spokesperson of Moria's victims and pleaded for Luffy's help in getting their shadows back.

It was creepy to find out that there was a devil fruit that gave the user the ability to steal shadows. Jiru wrote this in her book of D.F. Users and hoped never to encounter Moria; which was a failed hope, after hearing Luffy's plan to beat Moria up to return all the shadows. Groaning in exasperation, Jiru only shook her head and told Luffy she'd help him anyway.

Coming upon the huge, creepy-looking cathedral building, Jiru expressed her awe at such details in the stonework, and promptly removed her art book from her specialized backpack to start sketching. Robin cheerfully agreed, pointing out more details to the treasure hunter. It was only when they entered, that the short pirate decided to hate the building. When zombies popped out of the woodwork; the collector freaked out again, overwhelmed by disgusted-horror. She clung to Luffy when the very rug underneath them came to life; causing her captain to laugh in good humor as he knocked out the zombie-polar-bear-rug to appease her.

After the brief brawl, the zombie pig on the wall taunted them all; mentioning that their three missing friends were safe in the bedrooms. The treasure hunter didn't believe the lie, and pointed out that the defeated wall-hangings were laughing at them. Zoro then noticed that Sanji was missing, and stated that they should take the un-dead pig as a guide. Jiru asked what they should do about Sanji's disappearance, and Luffy told her the cook could take care of himself. The wall-zombies naysayed this, saying Moria would defeat them all. Luffy told them that if any of his nakama were harmed, he'd blow up the island.

So, with Franky and the undead pig in the lead, followed up Robin and Luffy and finally Jiru and Zoro, the Mugiwaras ventured into the dark depths of the spooky mansion. With the Pig still yapping away, Zoro's disappearance went unnoticed until it was too late; Jiru turning around to notice this.

Zoro's disappearance upset Luffy enough to don armor; a suit that lay against the wall in the hall. So it was with clanking loudness that the remaining four Mugiwaras entered a large room holding carnival tents. The huge room looked like an out-dated festival arena; with the tents being moth-eaten and ragged. It was while Jiru was scanning the room that Franky shoved her off her marine-cape covered aura-pad. Her cape was skewered to the floor as she tumbled back into the hallway – so much for her idea of flaunting a stolen marine cape.

Her anger was quickly stunned into awe as she watched Franky fight off the hulking armored-zombie. Watching avidly, she cheered when Franky threw the armor-zombie into the arena ring. He rewarded her with one of his 'Supah' Poses.

The surprise was on them as the Zom-Pig guide told them all that the zombies were virtually invincible and there was no hope for winning. None of them were safe; and to hit the point home, a wall-zombie slammed down, cutting Jiru off from others. It was almost frightening to see the look of stunned surprised in her captain's eyes – so much so, that Jiru screamed and kicked the solid wall, venting her frustration and anger. Luffy needed her to cover his back, and Robin and Franky were most likely fighting with the multitude of armored zombies she saw briefly in the arena room before the zombie-wall fell.

Oink-ing laughter caught her attention as the Zombie-Pig was rolling on its back in mirth at her expense. Marching up to the annoyingly dead wall-trophy, Jiru kicked its face and ordered it to make the wall move. The Zom-pig only laughed harder, ran away, leaving her in the darkness of the hallway.

This pissed her off completely, and taking a long-pole ax off the wall, Jiru gave chase to the undead pig. It was then that she ran into her first trouble: the zombie-samurai Ryuuma. Rounding a corner after having lost track of the zom-pig, she came face to chest with the undead samurai. Looking up into the hollow sockets was a mistake, as she should have been watching his stance – something Zoro had taught her early on; a tip to defend herself against sword-wielders.

Dropping her recently gained ax, Jiru spun around to get the hell out of the hallway when samurai made his move. Using the black-end of his katana hilt, he landed a blow in the deep of her gut. Inside, she felt something tear and moaned Luffy's name before blanking out.

XXX

Coming awake to the sound of a softly singing voice, the Golden Thief promptly keeled over and vomited. Sitting up groggily, her stomach feelings like it was on fire, she realized that she wasn't where she thought she was – which would be on the Sunny-Gou relaxing. Pulling herself up onto her knees; as her arms were bound behind her, she scanned her surroundings and found a few disconcerting things: A. she was wearing a skirt rather than her capri-pants, B. she was sitting on stone-cold ground, C. her stomach really hurt something fierce and D. the person in front of her was undead, and twirling her white panties around on a decrepit bony finger; sipping tea with the other hand. Lifting herself up to modestly fold her legs to block the draft she was now aware of, the pirate-female stared as the undead samurai began talking:

'I knew it, you wouldn't give up after being knocked down once, would you?'

'Pervert!' Came her reply.

'Have you not heard of my name? Upon hearing Master Swordsman Ryuuma; anyone would recoil in fear…'

Seconds dragged forever, her eyes glued on the rotating clothing on the pervert's finger. It wasn't until Brooke spoke that she knew the situation was going to kill her of embarrassment – the zombie samurai wasn't talking to her.

'How dare you steal the young lady's panties…'

'Come now, our level of flesh is different…' the other responded. 'I would think the girl would more like flesh than bone.'

'QUIET! You are my shadow, you shall return to beneath my feet.'

'I think not…'

The tone of their voices was thick with hate and dominance, and barely masked battle-lust; and it sent shivers down her spine, hearing the two speak with such vehemence.

XXX

Meanwhile, having fled after watching Luffy's stolen shadow come to life in the gigantic corpse of Oz; Nami, Chopper and Usoppu all were in trouble. Nami was captured by the Invisible man, Absalom. Franky and Robin came to the rescue of Chopper and Usoppu.

Making their way back to the Sunny-gou, the Mugiwaras found their ship trashed and Zoro, Sanji and Luffy 'decorated' and unconscious. Needing their unresponsive fighting power, Usoppu fixed that problem by yelling that Jiru was in trouble. All three of them jumped to wakefulness and looked around for something to smash.

When Usoppu and Franky explained the situation, Sanji, Zoro and Luffy were all ready to pick up the fight. Sanji was pissed that both Nami and Jiru were missing, and raged at Usoppu when the sniper explained that Nami was kidnapped. Zoro asked what had happened to Jiru and Franky stated he last saw her before the Zombie General fight and the wall had dropped down to separate them. The treasure hunter was most likely wandering around the dark, haunted mansion. Sanji also raged at the shipwright.

Then, discussing their plan of action, Luffy was sad that none of them knew where the food was. All that was left on the ship was cheese. It was decided, then, to find Jiru and Nami and rescue their shadows and the food.

Beforehand, Franky quickly explained his deal with Brooke, and how at first, Franky disliked the pile of walking bones. The blue-haired pervert now stated otherwise. Relating Brooke's story of his Vow to return to a certain long-left behind nakama, Franky repeated a name the crew – minus Robin and Chopper – all knew: Laboon.

Nami, Luffy and Zoro explained that they had met Laboon and as such, Brooke was going to be thrilled to hear about it. It was with awe that the experienced Mugiwara crew thought back to Laboon and connected Brooke with the whale. They reminisced about the scarred whale they had met at the end of Reverse Mountain and just how long Laboon waited for his own nakama.

This excited Luffy to no end as he vowed to get the walking-skeleton as his nakama. It was a bonus for Luffy, as Brooke was a musician. Chopper, Franky, Usoppu and Robin all agreed with him, Brooke was coming along regardless. With that behind them, Zoro and Sanji were ready for battle; wanting to save the shadows and the missing females. Luffy called his cry and they prepared for battle.

XXX

Elsewhere on the haunted, zombie-plagued island, high in the mansion's tower; Brooke had engaged Ryuuma in a swordfight, determined to expel his shadow from the walking dead and restore Jiru's honor (along with her panties). Watching in awe as the two clashed swords, her Reiki-Reiki no Mi went to work and the treasure hunter started seeing the fearsome energies that were emitted when the two clashed. Like a small, television-ic strip above Brooke's head, pieces of scenery flickered to life, like visible thoughts.

Not understanding what was going on, Jiru watch as Brooke clashed yet again with Ryuuma, only somehow it was a view from the past; the first meeting between the differently dead.

Suddenly the fight came to its climax, as Ryuuma and Brooke finally spoke again, startling her out of her trance. Cheering Brooke on quietly, Jiru held her breath as they made their final strikes…only to gasp in horror as Brooke fell in defeat.

Ryuuma poised over the fallen, readying the death stroke; which was to cut off Brooke's treasured afro. Jiru would never let Brooke, Luffy's nakama, be defeated so and rammed herself into the back of Ryuuma as the earthquake hit; which sent them all off-kilter. Jiru and Brooke tumbled away from Ryuuma as the world went shaky. Landing – embarrassingly enough – on Brooke's lap, Jiru felt her face go red as she demanded Brooke not to give up.

Ryuuma stated that the defeated shouldn't be interacted with, and came at Brooke and Jiru with his dark sword. Jiru, unable to use her hands to put up a barrier, leaned against Brooke to free her legs so that she could kick away Ryuuma's sword.

It was Franky and Zoro that came to the rescue - mostly Zoro - as the Santoryuu user blocked the undead samurai's sword with his own. Franky, following behind Zoro, commented on how nice Jiru's legs looked in her black skirt. Jiru kicked uselessly at Franky and demanded that the shipwright free her hands so she could beat him up. Zoro then grinned at her as he muttered something about the treasure hunter looking as good as a fight with Ryuuma; whom he wanted to meet.

The treasure hunter, now free of being tied up, yelled at the swordsman, covering her embarrassment. Brooke, being propped up by Franky, watched in awe as the duo bickered. When the walking pile of bones asked Zoro to get his shadow and Jiru's panties back; both Zoro and Jiru told him to 'shut the hell up'. The swordsman then turned to Jiru and asked if 'they' were ok. The treasure hunter told Zoro to worry about his own fight and defeat Ryuuma's dead body to take his sword, Shuusui; which was Ryuuma's 'treasure'.

Opposing them, Ryuuma called Jiru feisty and taunted Zoro, telling him he'd never take Shuusui. Zoro laughed back and told Jiru to be on standby as Ryuuma asked why Zoro carried three swords. The undead samurai taunted Zoro more, before launching his attack. Zoro's response was instantaneous, drawing awed comments from Franky and Brooke; both of whom had never seen Zoro in serious action.

During the fight, Franky asked the treasure hunter questions on how strongly Zoro fought, and the treasure hunter answered truthfully: Zoro was really that powerful. Even the Golden Thief was impressed on how far Zoro had grown since Enies Lobby. So much so; she nearly missed her cue to jump on damage control, as the walls came crushing down. Snapping out of her awe, The Golden Thief used her aura pads and lifted Franky and Brooke out of the imploding room, setting them on the next rooftop over.

The fight grew more intense as she, Franky and Brooke watched from the corner of the roof. Jiru read Zoro's every move, waiting to play her part if something bizarre happened. Which happened in the next fifteen seconds, as Ryuuma sliced the top of the tower off and launched it at Zoro. Zoro used the falling top like a launch pad to take himself into the air. Taking off on an air-pad, she hovered nearby – safely out of any sword's way – as Zoro delivered the finishing blow to the undead samurai, leaving the body in burning blue flames. Then, catching Zoro on another pad – one soft enough to lessen the impact – Jiru watching with grim interest as Ryuuma burned with blue flames. The possessed shadow from Ryuuma flew up next to her as it made its way to the proper owner: Brooke.

Then, watching as Ryouma's Shuusui sword and sheath fall into Zoro's up-stretched hand, she allowed herself to relax. Moving down to the trio below her, the treasure hunter was startled into embarrassment when Brooke commented on nice her 'panties' looked – she currently wore none. Hitting the skeleton, she cursed both at Franky and Zoro when the two males teased her on how she had a crush on Brooke. She denied this vehemently, and had the chance to catch her breath, seeing how everyone was still alive.

However, before the peacefulness became permanent; the beastly and massively titanic zombie appeared, crashing out from the mansion like the walls were wet paper. The truly gigantic moving heap of undead flesh was calling out for the Mugiwara Pirates. Screaming in terror, Jiru promptly undid her air-pad and thudded onto the broken roof, hiding behind the trio of males.

Her trio of masculine comrades looked at her oddly as she crouched down to keep herself as small as possible; commenting on how truly terrifying 'Luffy's Zombie' was. Her fear of something so titanically large was hilarious to Zoro, the swordsman finally seeing one of her weaknesses. He laughed at her situation as he commented on how the 'fun' would truly start.


	9. Oz Fight

_Chapter 9: Oz Fight_

The hulking mass of zombie, cried out for the Mugiwara Crew, stating his name of Oz. Below, Jiru could see the rest of her crew on various levels: Sanji at rock bottom, Usoppu, Robin and Chopper on a bridge, midlevel and themselves: at the top on the tower. While the treasure hunter was trying to discern where the missing pirates were, Oz made his move; calling out one of Luffy's attacks; surprising them all. All hell broke loose as the huge, giant hand was aimed at Sanji. Springing into action, Zoro told her to stay back; shouting at Franky to draw Oz's attention their way.

The idea worked all too well, and the larger-than-life zombie moved faster than could be believed, kicking the tower into rubble. The treasure hunter, screaming in fright, managed to make an air-pad to catch the falling Brooke and Franky, placing them safely below. Turning back for Zoro, the Golden Thief barely managed to witness the terrifying kick that sent the swordsman flying sky-high. Usoppu screamed at her to catch Zoro, or the swordsman would die. Shouting from her air-pad, Jiru told them to focus on their own fight or they'd die too. Thing moved fast, and after managing to plot out a descending path; caught Zoro – only to share the same fate as her nakama: being smashed to the ground with a titanic hand.

Groaning in pain and doing her best to get to her feet; Jiru watched a searching Oz with a leery eye. Her stomach was flaring up again, feeling like something was burning; the feeling threw her concentration in battle, sending her to her knees. Finally getting to her feet, she yelled at Zoro as he berated her for being slow. Sanji, Chopper and Franky all told the samurai to shut the hell up and focus on beating 'Oz'. Then, hanging back on yet another air-pad, the femme treasure-hunter listened to them bicker before finally agreeing on Oz's name being Oz.

'OY, OZ, DON'T GO UNDERESTIMATING YOUR NAKAMA'S POWER!' They all screamed at the gigantic zombie.

Round two was on, as Oz attempted to squash them all flat by a 'Rubber Butt Stomp.' Throwing up air-walls in front of the fighters, the Golden Thief was utterly caught off guard by Franky's shouted order of 'Tactics Fifteen'. Standing immobile on the busted terrain, she and Robin watched with fascinated horror as Zoro, Sanji, Chopper and Usoppu all applied themselves as parts of a bigger 'robot' with Franky being the centerpiece.

Seconds ticked by and Chopper announced that Jiru nor Robin weren't 'docked' properly and parts of the Giant Robot Warrior were missing. Franky pled with the Archeologist and Treasure Hunter to join them and Robin's reply: 'As a person, I am embarrassed.' sent them all into stunned surprise. Upon seeing their reaction, Jiru broke down into tears of laughter, effectively weakening her physical resolve. Being cursed at as Oz slapped the unfinished 'Big Emperor Robot' away, the treasure hunter gasped in laughter as the fight – paused due to Oz's excited watching of the Robot – picked up again. The others pitched in again, and it wasn't until Franky shouted for her help that the Golden Thief was able to fight again, using her strategically placed air-pads to support a set of Franky-built stairs leading up to Oz's face. Using their combined hits and tactics, the pirates managed to knock Oz onto his head.

Having been thrown upside-down, Oz stupidly insulted them, then announced himself stuck. Eyes gleaming with malice, the fighting squad began pounding away on Oz's face. The Reiki-Reiki User used her imagination to create a huge air/aura-hammer to repetitively slam Oz in the face with.

Retreating after Oz managed to free himself, the short female kept the ball rolling and distracted the foe with a taunt of 'Look over there, there's a ton of meat!'

Zoro and Franky took the opening she created, and aimed their attacks for Oz's knees. Then, telling Franky and the others to keep hitting Oz, Zoro interrupted her brainstorming tactics.

Zoro, who was clever enough to be like-minded as the treasure hunter, spoke up. The swordsman intoned that, regardless of where/what Luffy was doing, they all had to defeat Oz. He also ordered Jiru to go look for Luffy, since she was looking extremely pale and sick – from what, no one knew for certain. She refused, stating she would help them all fight or die trying.

Jumping into the fray again, Zoro tested his newly-won blade, Shuusui. Talking to the others, Jiru's calculating mind informed them of Luffy's weakness in this scenario: mind-trickery. If Luffy was off fighting Moria, it was bound to be a disaster; the man was a shadow-master and shadows were symbolically used for 'deception'. They simply had to return Luffy's shadow first and foremost; then worry about the other shadows later. With a quick calculation of time, it was stated that it was less than thirty minutes before dawn; because the fog wouldn't last. A premonition on Jiru's part, as the island suddenly was in the open: the fog was gone.

XXX

Elsewhere, Moria, having tricked Luffy into running off into the forest chasing his shadow, was discussing politics with another Shichibukai: Bartholomew Kuma. The bear-looking strong-man was informing Moria of worldly events, such as 'Blackbeard' replacing Crocodile as a Shichibukai. Then the conversation swung to the Mugiwara Crew: stating that the World Government would be most displeased if another Shichibukai was defeated by Luffy. Mentioning that Rob Lucci had lost to the Mugiwaras, Moria scoffed and told Kuma off, saying he had already acquired the Mugiwara Crew. Then the Shichibukai left Kuma and joined the battle.

Within a blink of an eye, Moria was comfortably seating in the hollow stomach of Oz, giving his greetings to the fighting Mugiwaras (minus Luffy and Nami). Exchanging insults and pleasantries the Mugiwara's decided to fight both Moria and Oz together. Zoro gave the command to Usoppu to go and find all the salt he could. The Sniper of the crew nodded in agreement and ran off to find the salt, only to be smashed by a Moria-commanded Oz. Jiru rushed in to give Usoppu an air-aura shield, but was far too late in moving – Oz's hand moved faster than before. Fortunately, Brooke came to the Sniper's rescue, along with the sought-for ton of salt.

Thanking Brooke profusely for saving Usoppu, Jiru cheered for the skeleton as he explained where he disappeared to. Telling the treasure hunter to stick with Brooke and the salt, Zoro took command of the fight again, trying to force an opening so the floating treasure hunter could fly up and drop the bag in Oz's mouth.

The others once more dug in and moved against Oz, each pirate helping each other out to maximize their destructive potential. Sticking with Brooke, the Treasure Hunter watched in awe as her nakama joined together and really threw it at Oz. Franky, however, was the next to strike out, as Usoppu used a slap-dashed slingshot to fire the shipwright at the opening in Oz's stomach; where Moria sat.

It was Nami's Thunderbolt Tempo that halted Oz's smash-fest on Franky; allowing the Golden Thief to jump in and whisk the stunned cyborg away on an aura pad. Shouting at Sanji to shut up and not draw attention to the Navigator's position, the Golden Thief barely made it to the other woman when a surprising attack of a stretchy Oz arm smashed the bridge. With Robin's sprouting arms to help, Jiru managed to catch Nami with a pad.

It was Moria that explained just how Oz's body was now able to stretch. The physical body had to follow the law of the shadow; if the shadow stretched, the body did too. Moria's own shadow now controlled Oz's and made the giant-above-giants zombie that much more dangerous.

With Franky out of battle, and Nami back in, their numbers stayed the same as the fight continued again, with the next strike led by Brooke, followed by Zoro, then Usoppu. The floating treasure hunter was kept moving like an erratic bug, trying to keep up with her flying-through-the-air friends. Having caught a falling Brooke, Jiru then had to back Robin up as she managed to restrain Moria's shadow from allowing Oz's body to stretch.

After failing to protect Robin and her shadow – which was stolen by Moria – Jiru had to dodge the shadowy bats that Moria sent at her. Sanji came to their rescue, using his powerful kicks to keep Oz at bay while the Golden Thief hauled an unconscious Robin to safety.

It was then that Chopper announced that the right arm was the weakness of Oz. They once against fought, this time, focusing on the right arm. It was little use, since Oz took out Chopper and Sanji anyway. With just four pirates left, Zoro and Nami chose to press further, giving both Jiru and Usoppu an opening to deliver the salt; in hopes to free Luffy's Oz-trapped shadow.

After having their failure and the salt bag thrown back in their faces by Moria's shadow, Oz began stomping on Usoppu and Nami; leaving Jiru gasping for breath in trying to find a way to rescue her friends. For a moment, it looked like the Golden Thief was the only fighter left. It was Luffy, Shadow Luffy; that came to the rescue, having rescued Nami and Usoppu before Oz had started stomping. After taunting Oz, Luffy fought against the hulk.

Down below, after the Golden Thief air-lifted Nami and Usoppu out of the broken mansion floors up; the shadow-victims appeared to help the battle-fallen Mugiwaras. The pink-haired woman, Lola, led the rescue charge, taking the unconscious Mugiwaras away while Nightmare Luffy fought both Oz and Moria.

It was Jiru's turn to use her specialty: her foresight and cleverness. Having thrown the facts that Chopper had mentioned that the right arm was foreign, the living Oz had died centuries earlier from hypothermia, plus that that zombies were virtually invincible; around in her head the Golden Thief came up with very clever plan; which they would use on Oz after Luffy was finished knocking the zombie around.

Informing the now-conscious crew – while the shadow-victims were too busy watching the battle – the Treasure Hunter offered her idea and the others agreed. After once again knocking Oz down, Nightmare Luffy finally ran out of time and lost his 100-shadow power; Jiru caught him as he fell and lowered him down to the ground where the other pirate mass waited. Jiru quickly filled Luffy in on her plan, giving the others time enough to get into position.

The Counterattack was ready, and as Oz stood up, the captain nodded; calling out as he slowly pulled himself up. Everyone was in their place; as Luffy asked Jiru to take him and Brooke to the Thriller Island's highest point. She did so, while the others played their parts in restraining the huge zombie; then moving his body so that the spinal cord would be in straight-rod alignment for Luffy to pound down on; intending to shatter it to pieces.

Atop the crow's nest of the island ship, Brooke, Jiru and Luffy were ready; and Brooke threw Luffy straight down to Oz; leaving the Musician and Golden Thief behind to enjoy a sunrise together. Whatever thought-provoking words Brooke exchanged with her would forever be between then as they had an aerial view of Oz's final fall.


	10. Kuma's Appearance

_Chapter 10: Kuma's Appearance_

However, Moria was still conscious and emerged from Oz's stomach. The Shadow-Victims and the Mugiwaras still found a fight on their hands, as Moria sucked up all the remaining shadows on Thriller Bark. He called it his Shadow Asgard move.

Those who had their shadows stolen – like Robin, Sanji, Zoro, Luffy and Lola – stood firm as the race against time truly started. Inch by inch, the rising sun crept upward into the sky, threatening those without shadows standing without cover.

The Mugiwara captain geared up for one last strike, sending himself against Moria one on one. Taking the Shadow Box hit, Luffy only bounced back and used both Second and Third Gear, slamming a fast giant fist into Moria's gut. This made the Shichibukai spew forth shadows, as he lost control of the thousands Shadow Asguard. Finally Moria lost consciousness, letting free the horde of shadows within his body.

Having been burnt half way, Sanji, Robin, Zoro, Luffy and Lola were miraculously saved when their shadows finally returned to them. The rest of the Mugiwaras all freaked out at their saved nakama, now whole once again.

The fight was over, and the Mugiwaras had won. The once captive shadows had been freed and now returned to their rightful owners – who, by now, would be overjoyed in seeing the sun once again.

The Shadow-Victim Pirates all gave their sincere gratitude to their saviors, but the Treasure Hunter didn't really care since her focus was on the unconscious, yet victorious, Luffy. She was worried about the consequences on his body from his use of Second and Third Gear consecutively. Being so concerned while Chopper evaluated their captain, the treasure hunter barely managed to listen to Nami when the navigator finally remember the bad news. There was another enemy on the island-ship.

Indeed, there was yet another Shichibukai around, and revealed himself as his conversation on a portable Den-Mushi (mini den-den mushi) cut through the quietness of the post-battle.

Everyone was shocked to see the ex-pirate known as the Tyrant sitting calmly on a fallen tower. The jubilant cheer quickly turned to fear and shock as the Shichibukai received orders from the Den-Mushi to kill them all. Nami warned them on how dangerous he and his hands were, and how he had a teleportation trick.

Showing just that, the Tyrant suddenly appeared in their midst and struck the Shadow Pirates that attacked. Piercing them without touching them, the Tyrant watched quietly as the Victim's leader, Lola, took charge and forbad anyone to attack the Shichibukai.

After a very short, uneasy wait, the Tyrant casually challenged Roronoa and the Golden Thief. The Shadow-Victims naysayed this, venting their frustrated anger at having their saviors attacked so soon.

Zoro told them to stand back, as Kuma had asked for him. Verbally pushing the Golden Thief out of the fight, Roronoa exchanged thoughtful words with his opponent. Kuma stated that the Mugiwara Captain had gathered such an exceptional crew, the crew being noticed like their captain. The Swordsman attacked, and the duel was on. Zoro was put on the ropes by Kuma's Paw-Paw ability which Jiru argued that she would be more of a match against than the swordsman.

After losing the fight, but living only through Sanji's intervention, Roronoa Zoro and the rest looked on in shock as Kuma created an Air bomb; a process which the Golden Thief explained in horror. Kuma stared back at them, and gave them all a condition of escape: They all would walk away with their lives, if they only turned over Monkey D. Luffy.

Utterly and completely denying his deal, the gathered group all felt the terrible power of Ursa Shock Air Bomb.

The Golden Thief instantly had engulfed the group in one of her own Aura domes, but the dome was quickly overpowered until all she could manage was a fiercely concentrated air-shield over the inert Luffy. Holding and forming the energy in the air when it was twisted around like a tornado was beyond her skill level, and it took all her focus and willpower to hold a dome in place over Luffy. It cost her largely, as the Golden Thief was pummeled and struck with angry flying debris.

Only when the air and flying debris finally settled, did the Reiki-user release the protective dome when her focus was shattered by the pain in her left leg. A huge, room-sized boulder had come to rest on her left ankle and gravity was doing its work; drawing the stone down to the ground beneath; slowly, painfully, grinding her bone between it and the ground.

Painfully aware that she and Kuma Paw-Man were the only ones conscious, the Golden Thief hissed and spat like a cat as the towering Shichibukai approached her, still intent on taking Luffy's bounty. However, he uncaringly offered relief when he repelled the immovable stone chunk on her now broken ankle. The Treasure hunter cried with audible pain as she moved to shield Luffy with her body – if Luffy had met the end of his line, she would go with him. The Shichibukai wouldn't get away with taking just the captain.

Thankfully, Zoro appeared out of nowhere and managed to slice into Kuma's steel-hard shoulder; pushing the Tyrant away from the two. Watching in horror as Zoro started round two with the now-revealed cyborg Kuma, the Golden Thief weakly managed to reflect the mouth-laser beams away from Zoro. Noting how even the debris was reduced to slag, Zoro refused Kuma Luffy's bounty; and instead offered his own.

Zoro's offer sent Jiru in a mind-numbing rage; cussing out the swordsman as she threw her bounty as a counter-offer – shouting that the other-worldly knowledge she had would be most valuable to the so called Dr. Vegapunk whom Kuma stated was the one to modify him into the cyborg-like 'Pacifista.'

It was here that a third offer was given, as Sanji resolutely refused to allow neither Zoro nor his beloved Golden Thief to be captured by the Marines. Spouting off his poetic sacrificial nonsense about Zoro's dream and the Mugiwaras finding a new chef was for naught, as Zoro KO-ed Sanji with a sword hilt to the gut. Then, turning to a silently weeping Treasure Hunter, the swordsman forced her to swear to make sure that Luffy would become the next Pirate King. Unable to physically deter the strong swordsman, the broken Golden Thief watched as Kuma repelled the injuries in Luffy and offer it to Zoro; which would be the deal-sealer. Screaming in horror as the small sample the Kuma gave the swordsman sent the man screaming in death; she could only stare as Zoro agreed to the deal and asked to receive the large globe of red-tinted pain elsewhere, so that the Golden Thief wouldn't witness his death. Kuma agreed to this and the pair went off out of sight.

The Golden Thief could do nothing but weep and watch silently – being the only other life form conscious enough to do so. She held onto consciousness a bit longer, until Kuma removed a mortal wound from her. She then proceeded to pass out.


	11. Departure

_Chapter 11: Departure_

Jiru snapped out of her trip down memory-lane. Allowing her to wander, she had quietly followed Zoro back from the gravesite that Franky had built for the fallen. Having offered her help in directing him to the ship, Jiru had been told to keep quiet as he refused to let her tell him where to go.

Now they had returned, thirty minutes and many turns later. The Golden Thief looked up at the scene before her. The Sunny-gou was cleared of cobwebs and ready to set sail – good old Sunny-gou. In front of the ship, Luffy was prancing around with Usoppu and Chopper, singing something about mermaids and their next destination; Fishman Island.

"Zoro! Ji-chan!" The moronically slap-happy pirate captained quickly tucked the Vivre card that had spurred the discussion of his older brother back into his hat rim and bounced over to the pair of pirates. Both the first and sixth mates missed the conversation of Ace's imprisonment in Impel Down.

"You're awake, and you're back!" Luffy laughed.

"Yes, we are, no thanks to Zoro the Clueless over here." Jiru was currently reclined on a two-planed air-pad, sitting on it like a beach couch; her left leg hanging off the rounded, semi-invisible ledge. "He wanted to tour Thriller Bark one last time before we left." Her way of saying they had gotten lost.

"Chibi, I told you to keep quiet!" Zoro snapped, unwilling to humor the girl any longer.

"You! Marimo!" Sanji had stopped dancing with a now perfectly safe Usoppu and stomped up to the swordsman. "It's about time, you shitty swordsman, that you brought Ji-chwan back safe and sound."

"What the hell is your problem, Ero-Cook?" Zoro growled back, thumbing his trio of weapons threateningly. "Forget it; I'm getting on the ship."

"Before we have a more extensive tour of the graveyard." The Golden Thief floated near the quarreling pair. "Zoro, I bet you could recite every name on the tombstones we passed by."

"Chibi-brat!" Zoro retorted back. "I wasn't lost."

"Shitty-Swordsman! How dare you insult a woman!" Sanji's leg was now up and poised to whip out and strike the green-haired head.

"She's not a woman, she's a wench; a short, annoying little wench." The other male sneered back. It looked like an imminent fight, once again, between the two. Nami was about to step in and stop it when Jiru spoke up again.

"Oh, great, you two are fighting again? Whoever talks about me next has to kiss me and pull up the anchor."

"Watch this, Jiru!" Luffy's voice cut into the fight. In the next instant, Luffy had jumped onto both Sanji and Zoro – one foot on each head – and balanced there, grinning at her.

"I'm talking about you; does this mean I get a kiss?" Luffy had a wide, goofy grin plastered over his face and a hand on his straw-hat; most likely to hold it in place while…

"Hey, idiot! Get off my head!" Zoro shouted.

"Grrrr, YOU. I'm going to kill you!" Sanji vented.

Jumping up to avoid his angry cook and the pissed off swordsman, Luffy continued to laugh as the two males grumbled angrily at their captain.

"Don't you dare kiss my precious Jiru-swan!" Sanji raged more, stomping after the laughing pirate captain. "I'll kick your ass if you do!"

"Sanji-kun." Nami's sweetened voice cut through the cook's rage. The blonde-haired cook turned on a dime and melted under the navigator's attention.

"Yeeeessssssss, Nami-SWAN!" Sanji focused completely on the orange-bomb-shell beauty; his heart beating wildly.

"Get on the ship. Now."

"Anything for my Nami-chan!" Sanji bubbled happily as he danced his way towards the lion mane-d ship.

"Ero-Cook." Zoro managed to get the last word in against Sanji. The cook was completely oblivious as he was soaking up Nami's command.

"Marimo-chan…" Jiru caught Zoro's attention and pouted demurely. The swordsman grunted with an embarrassed response. "Get on the ship, or I'll tell Luffy how you managed to get lost."

The treasure hunter's half-revealed secret caught the attention of Franky, Robin and Nami.

"Fi-FINE! You are just as evil as the Sea Witch over there." Zoro's face was completely red as he was blackmailed into shutting up and shipping out.

The two other females, pirate captain and shipwright stood astounded, as Zoro dragged his reluctant feet onto the ship after a Nami-whipped Sanji. Brooke, Usoppu and Chopper already stood on deck; making minute changes to the ship in order to cast off.

"What'd you do to Zoro-bro, Chibi-Sis?" Franky asked the floating treasure hunter as she laughed.

"Franky-bro, that's not fair; I can't tell you that I teased Zoro mercilessly on the way back." Jiru winked slyly at Nami and Robin. "If I did, then I wouldn't have anything to blackmail him with in the future."

Usoppu, Chopper, Sanji and Zoro all heard her and shouted in-sync at her, with annoyance written all over their faces.

"YOU JUST TOLD US, YOU IDIOT!"

"Oops. Heehee." The gold-seeker didn't look the least bit guilty.

Luffy was still laughing at those onboard and their annoyed reactions at Jiru's purposely planned antics. Nami hadn't hit her fellow treasure-seeker for her twisted punch-line; instead she just shook her head before turning to the pink-haired pirate that had stepped up next to them.

Robin giggled at the Golden Thief's antics, thinking the shorter woman's sense of humor cute. Franky continued to laugh as he and Robin moved towards the ship to give their assistance in casting off.

"Oh yea!" the treasure hunter turned away from the laughing shipwright and to the crowd of pirates. "I finally remembered something about the other Shichibukai."

"Huh?" Luffy focused his attention to his floating nakama. In turn, she smiled and focused on the pink-haired pirate that was briefly talking to Nami. Lola turned to the Golden Thief and listened.

"The reason that the Tyrant was trying to kill us all was because the government ordered him to. They were worried that the witnesses would go and brag to the world that Monkey D. Luffy defeated yet another Shichibukai."

The crowd of shadow-victim pirates all gasped stage-ly as Luffy laughed loudly.

"It that so?" Lola stepped away from Nami as the tangerine-haired navigator began climbing onto the Sunny-gou.

"Yea, and so I just thought to save you guys trouble, I suggest not telling anyone about Luffy's victory." Jiru had been high-confidence while making her announcement, but now avoided the other woman's straight-on gaze. She sat back on her air-pad and fidgeted slightly as Luffy stepped up next to her.

"But…" A pirate in the back, a tall and short/straight haired male, stuttered in confusion. "We owe you all our lives, how can we not tell the world?"

"Quiet, Barbane!" Lola whipped around and ordered the confused pirate. "If this is her request, then we must obey it to our death!"

The shadow-saved conglomerate of mis-matched pirates cowered under the sternness of Lola's comment. But they all agreed; since they all still felt ocean-deep in awe and dept to the Mugiwaras. Barbane looked shamed, but was nudged by his nearby friends.

"She's right, mate, the Golden Thief is a Mugiwara too." One mentioned. "If she says jump, we gotta jump!"

"Wai-wait a minute, I never said that!" Jiru gasped in surprise at the groups' fervor. "It may be tortured out of you, and if you get tortured, you can say it then, but…"

"Shishishishishishi." Luffy laughed once more, and covered his treasure-hunter's mouth with an outstretched hand. "Jiru-chan, relax. They know what you mean."

"Mugiwara!" Another group of voices called out from the direction of the toppled and ruined mansion. Six men ran towards the dock, carrying things in their hands. Cutting through the remaining Shadow-Rescued Pirates; the shouting group of men arrowed their way towards the pair.

"Mugiwara! We found the items you asked us to look for!" The six-foot tall leader came to a stop in front of the smiling pirate captain. "Sorry it took a while, but the backpack was all the way on top of the mansion. We had to find a way to climb up there!"

"Oh!" Luffy looked excited and pleased. Jiru tilted her head sideways; looking at the bedraggled specialized bag the men carried; then recognized it for hers. She had managed to steal a scientifically enhanced storage bag from Enies Lobby. It had many pockets and sections to store and hold things. It was something she had used ever since.

"Oh! That's mine! I totally forgot about my storage bag!" The Golden Thief accepted the one-of-a-kind bag from the men and smiled; sending them kow-towing in reverence. It would have been a crippling lost for a Collector like her. Most of her adventure mementos and treasures were in that bag.

"Stop that! I'm no god, you idiots!" Jiru scowled, clutching the brown and jean-blue bag to her chest before retreating to the ship.

"Luffy!" Nami's voice yelled from the Sunny-Gou. "The Sunny-gou is ready to set sail!"

"Yosh!" His response came. Turning briefly to the group that had run up, he spoke in soft volumes and accepted a small object from them before stretching and boarding the Sunny-gou.

"Take care you guys!" The shadow-pirates all shouted the Mugiwaras.

"We'll see you later!" The Mugiwaras answered back.

XXX

Half hour later, the two groups of pirates were on their ships; the victims of Gecko Moria once again used the ship that Brooke had drifted on for so long. Having distributed supplies; farewells and promises, the Shadow-Victims and Mugiwaras parted ways; making their way out of the dreaded and haunted Florian Triangle and Thriller Bark.

"What was that little package those pirates gave you, Luffy-chan?" The treasure hunter asked about the object she saw Luffy take from the other pirates.

Sitting next to the captain without putting any pressure on her bandaged foot; Jiru finally – blessedly – lost sight of the horrendous Thriller Bark as the island drifted back into its fate within the foggy Florian Triangle.

It must have been her imagination, but the huge silhouette that loomed deep within the roiling foggy water – twice as large as Oz had been – stared straight at the two departing ships.

"Oh, that…" Luffy turned to her and grinned. "It's a surprise for you, later on."

"Oh, great, just great. It's not a zombie or ghost is it?"

"Neeee…I'm not telling!" Luffy rolled off the lionish head of the ship and laughed; teasing his treasure-hunter. "You have to catch me to find out."

"Luffy! Get back here this instant! It is a zombie, isn't it! That's so gross." She fell for the bait and floated speedily after the taunting captain.

"I'm NOT TELLING!"

"LUUUUUUUUUUUFFFYYY!" She shouted; chasing after the elusive, rubbery pirate.

The Mugiwaras were all glad to leave the adventure of Thriller Bark behind. It was onward to the next, unknown adventure.


	12. Halcyon Days

_Chapter 12: Halcyon Days_

_**Day 2: Jiru's Log:**_

I am starting a log book to help pass the long, sailing days on the endless ocean. At least, until we reach the next island; which Luffy says will be Fishman Island. I hope it's nothing like Thriller Bark. I hate Thriller Bark and hope it burns to ashes.

It has been forty-eight hours after our Thriller Bark departure. Luffy will NOT eat the cheese platter I made for him and I ask why; he explains that cheese is the worst food to eat before battle. I have no clue what he is talking about; so I go to ask his best friend, Usoppu.

Big mistake asking the chronically lying sniper; I can't make heads nor tails of the long-winded story about building-sized zombie bears and size-changing Perona ghosts. (I never met the woman called Perona on my stay on Thriller Bark.) I try several times to direct the bragging 'Captain' Usoppu on why Luffy won't eat cheese, but fail in each attempt.

I go then to ask Nami; and she informed me she would provide an answer, as long as I could pay for it. I told her I wasn't going to pay, because the only Beri-valued thing I had at the moment was the with the large, double-fisted size diamond that Luffy had allowed me to choose from the Thriller Bark treasure. Nami had taken all the treasure AND credit for that round. Damn her, if she keeps her wily skills up, this treasure hunter will soon be out of a worth-while job. Oh well.

I ask Robin why Luffy won't eat cheese, but the reserved older woman just smiled conspiratorially at me and suggests asking Sanji. That Robin, I swear she practices in front of a mirror the straight faces she uses in teasing me. I don't know what to do with that clever, level-headed woman.

I move into the kitchen to ask Sanji why Luffy won't eat cheese; but end up with a mouth full of raspberry cheesecake the cook had been fixing for his trio of lovely women. I am the most susceptible – next to Luffy of course – in being distracted by food. Sweets, fruits and breads are my biggest weakness on the ship. Sanji, of course, is to blame for this development; as the blonde-headed cook creates nothing but the food of heaven. I leave the meats and vegetables to Luffy. (I'd kick Luffy's butt if he ever ate my seafood, though.)

I am focused on enjoying the sweet delight when Zoro swaggers in and opens his mouth to tease me; since karma always comes full circle. (I had mercilessly teased him back on Thriller Bark.) The swordsman suggests I take the cheesecake, smear it over my body and go lie on Sanji's bunk.

The cook is utterly and verbally stunned; the brain behind the sharp eyes being torn by sexually-explicit fantasies – his arousal clearly evident by the nosebleed – and the primal instinct to tear the swordsman's view on women into pieces and reshape it into something better. I laugh at both of them and suggest a threesome. This allows me to win the argument and spare both of them from having to resort to physically violence – Zoro IS still healing from the Luffy-expelled wounds that Kuma gave to him.

I yell out the door for Chopper; since both Zoro and Sanji are losing blood via nose. Brooke saunters in then, inquiring why Zoro had stormed out of the kitchen in a confused rage.

I shrug my shoulder in fake ignorance; not yet fully comfortable with being myself around the newest member of Luffy's crew: Dead Bones Brooke. The skeleton; by Franky and mine's calculations, is ninety-one years old. I have no idea what to think of that; since Brooke acts like he's eighteen. Then again; Franky acts the same, so they are both crazy and perverts.

With every crazy thing that happened from there to day's end: Luffy bothering Sanji for food – which the cook refuses him until dinner – I completely forget my original mission in finding out why Luffy would not eat cheese.

Oh well.

_**Day 3:**_

My wake-up call on day three after leaving Thriller Bark is something I never want to experience again. Never. The sniper had pranked me awfully good; at Luffy's insistence. The Lying Sniper had somehow managed to not only put fake bugs on my bunk; but in my toothpaste as well.

For those who do not know me; I hate – MORTALLY HATE – certain bugs, spiders and snakes.

The Sniper had somehow created fake spiders and roaches that moved on their own. Yea, he kept yelling at me: 'THEY WEREN'T REAL' every time I nearly had him. But the feather-light touch of a spider on my skin is something I can't stand. I also feel like screaming my lungs out even at the mention of a cockroach. They are icky and deserve to die.

I have to honestly say I spent half the day hunting for Usoppu to put his head on a platter. You wouldn't believe how many hiding places one can find on the Sunny-gou. The other half of the day, I spent plotting my revenge on Luffy and Usoppu.

_**Day 4:**_

Chopper asks me if I am feeling any better with my healing left ankle. I told the brown-furred reindeer it really, really itched. He told me it should since the bandages had itching powder all over them. I told Chopper to go help Franky in carving out two coffins; since I was going to kill Luffy and Usoppu yet again. They pranked me a second time. Just how they managed to infect my bandages with itching powder is beyond me.

I spent the WHOLE day harassing the mischievous pair mercilessly. I threw air-balls at them, wanting to leave them with bruises all over their bodies for putting itching powder on my bandages. I had to zip around sitting on my air-pad, using my Reiki-Reiki power, to chase them down to hurl the air-balls. I missed more than I hit; but nothing seemed to make them fear my wrath. They loved it; I guess they were really, really bored since this is the second day they pranked me. It usually rotates. Lucky me.

I quit my Luffy & Usoppu harassment at dinner and utterly ignored them until I retired for sleep; remembering to not only check for creepy-crawly bugs in the bed; but making sure that there was no itching powder within my clothes.

I hope tomorrow they'll forget about trying to goad me into chasing them and go prank Zoro or Sanji or somebody else.

_**Day 5:**_

The morning turned out to be normal; as there were no bugs and no itching powder. I had taken my time to get myself started for the day; calling in Chopper to assist me in changing the bandage on my foot; as per his instructions. The discoloring on the skin has faded away 90% and the swelling has gone down by half. It no longer hurts every time I move. (Which made chasing Luffy and Usoppu not as fun as it should have been. YOU try chasing two idiot teenaged males around on a large ocean-going ship; while zipping around on an air-pad that is controlled by your mental focus and will power without jostling a broken ankle.)

By the time I exit my room and joined the galley for breakfast; Luffy and Usoppu had already consumed theirs and were gathering their fishing gear to complete their plans of fishing all morning. I asked Franky and Robin to warn me if they moved from their railing-sitting spots on the starboard side or if they did anything remotely suspicious. They said ok.

Minutes ticked by as the other pirates slowly drifted out to do their own daily schedules: Robin to do her reading on the sunny deck, Nami to check the course, the weather, then retire to her cartography room to draw more maps. Chopper left to go play around in his medical room as Brooke followed the reindeer; wanting to offer his help. Franky, being the last to finish his food; told me he would keep an eye on the fishing pair. The crew had slowly been catching on to the pair's pranks over the past couple days; so Franky offered his help in giving me a reprieve. This leaves me, Sanji and Zoro left in the galley.

It has been three days since I last teased Zoro and Sanji; so I think up something quick. Offering my assistance to one or the other; Sanji immediately jumped on the chance for my help, only to turn around and state that my lovely hands shouldn't be tarnished by the dirty dishwater and forbids me to help him.

The cook's statement sent Zoro into a snort-laughing fit and the swordsman informed the cook on how he should permanently assign me to become the scullery-maid. The comment provoked both males into another macho-fight – something that was prime fodder for merciless teasing. I off-handedly mentioned that, if I were to be a scullery-maid, I would have to wear ONLY my panties and apron while washing the dishes…with soapy water.

I never get tired of their reactions; Zoro's face went red as Sanji's nose bled again; dribbling all over his cigarette. I left then, telling them to behave or else before closing the galley door and leaving them alone with their imaginations.

The rest of my day leaves me with the leery feeling of being watched. Every time I look over my shoulder to the fishermen (Luffy and Usoppu, now with Chopper joining them) I just manage to see them stop staring at me and pointedly – with giggles and undisguised re-glances – to focus on their fishing. They have managed to catch fifty pounds of Royal Carnaan Trout (bluish-tinted fish the size of an unsharpened pencil) for the day's final meal. How they managed to catch ANY thing was beyond me; since it was clearly obvious the two had other things on their mind.

But thankfully; no more pranks for the day; the two ship's idiots were just themselves: capering about acting like fools. They managed to drag Brooke and Chopper in their random; aimless dances about the grass lower deck of the Sunny-gou. This of course, was done to entertain Robin, Nami and myself as we three ladies lounged in the afternoon sun.

At dinner, Luffy announced that Zoro would have the night watch again; since my watch was canceled; as per captain's instructions. I argued lightly against this; not wanting to be useless. But the captain remained firm in his belief that I wasn't to over-exert myself with my bandaged foot. The vote was eight against two; and the swordsman ended up taking night-watch anyway; since he had slept all day to begin with.

I went to bed; checking for fake bugs and any other childish pranks the two Fools would have planted beyond my knowledge. Nothing was forthcoming so I went to sleep.

_**Day 7: Luffy's entry**_

Today, I have found this book. ~straw hat doodle~ Yes, I now how too writ. Robin taght me. My nakama ~doodle face~ treasure hunter Jiru mistakeningly left this be-hind. Haha be-hind…butt. I said Butt. HAHAHA! ~smelly pooping-butt doodle~

This book has been left on the table by her; and I peek inside too see what it says and do not understand most of it. She writs too much in her spair time. I will sooooooo get in trouble if she sees this and nows I have it. ~doodle face with lazers coming out the eyes~

So I writ in this book too get her mad at me and chase me. I love it when she chases me. It is fun. Only not as fun as it shold bee for her. Bumble bees do not make good food. I now becuz I tried eating one once and it hurt. ~bumble bee doodle~

She will sooooo chase me when she sees this. Butt she will not catch me becuz she hurt her foot in the fight against the Bear-guy. I did not see it becuz I was sleeping; if I was not sleeping, I wood have protected her. I will become stronger next time becuz I hate it when my nakama get hurt. She has forgiven me thou, and makes me not think about it. It's ok, because I plan too get stronger anyway. She is my precious nakama; and has lost something precious too her at Thriller Bark. She is happy thou, not thinking about her dead child. She made me stop blaming myself for that and said she wood hit me if I got sad thinking about how she got hurt.

I wonder if Sanji has made lunch yet. I sit here on the Sunny-gou's head, trying to bee sneaky and rite in her book. Shold I rite that I like Jiru really really a lot? Sanji always talks about loving a woman butt I do not now what he is talking about. I like too teese Jiru ~treasure doodle~ more then Nami ~fanged-face doodle~, becuz Nami always hits me when I make her mad. Jiru just yells and tries not too laugh. She laughs so fast, it makes me smile. If she is happy, I am happy even more.

Tomorrow Usoppu ~long-nose face doodle~ and I ~strawhat doodle~ plan too prank her really really good by stealing her underweer and weering it on are heads ~panties doodle~. I shold hide this book so she will not now about are plans. I plan too bee Super Luffy and run around weering her underweer on my head. ~pantie face doodle~ This will make her laugh so fast and chase me. ~action chase scene doodle~

I also have something else to give too her soon. I got her the unykorn horn that was on the unykorn zombee back on Thriller Bark. She was so happy too see the unykorn even thou it was a zombee. She even asked the unykorn zombee to bee in are crew! She is so silly. Only the captan can ask for new nakama. Butt that is ok, since the unykorn did not join after all.

I shold go now and see if Sanji has any food. Writing makes me really really hungry.


	13. Panties

_**Chapter 13: Panty Thief**_

_Jiru's Entry:_

_Today is the day that future King of the Pirates will die. I have him and his accomplices (there are two others that shall perish oh so terribly) cornered in the crow's nest. I am still killing them with my gaze of doom as I write. It is NOT a pretty sight. The future Pirate King is currently hanging off his long-nosed partner in crime; begging to fed. The third unlucky criminal is running around aimlessly; panicking over something I cannot hear. The trio of victims will soon be out of their misery. I pause in my writing; and hold up the sign of instructions they will have to follow to the letter as punishment. It is as follows:_

_1. You shall be my slaves for the next month; in doing my chores, guard-duty and protect me from any nasty bugs, pirates or animals that are dead and/or have more than four legs._

_2. You shall do my laundry for the next month, as well, since you are so fascinated by my clothes._

_3. You shall call me Captain Jiru and allow me to order you about at my whim._

_4. I get to wear 'Wara-san' for a week._

_The reply of the long-nosed criminal remains the same as his first 50 answers: NO! NEVER._

_Monkey D. Luffy howls and manages, somehow, to sink his teeth into Usoppu's leg. Chopper squeals in faux horror as his captain gnaws on the leg._

_Sanji, Nami and Franky all call up to me and ask if I had calmed down yet. I inform them I'll hold the criminals in the crow's nest a few more minutes before releasing them. The sleeping-not-sleeping swordsman manages to wake up and order me to release them now._

_I ordered the swordsman to 'bite me' and blew him a birdie. Sanji, of course, laughs and compliments me – thus causing the swordsman to become angry and volatile. I head this fight off at the start, telling the two idiots they are free to join the trio in the 'air-box' I have formed around the crow's nest. I inform them that Luffy has missed lunch by three minutes._

_They shiver in horror and cease fighting; physically parting ways. Nami just shakes her head and moves on; stepping over a still-immobile Brooke on deck. The new pirate was still stunned at the article of clothing Luffy and Usoppu had been flailing about. Robin, however, finds the whole situation hilarious as it had played out three hours earlier._

_XXX_

_I was minding her own business, floating comfortably on one of the two large trees that Franky had planted on the lower deck. Luffy had called out my name to get my attention._

_I wake up; propping myself on my elbows, look down at the male who had called out my name…and shriek like a harpy._

_Standing before me is Monkey D. Luffy – my estimable, rubbery pirate captain – with various pairs of my underwear placed on his head, shoulders; pulled onto his arms, legs and tied around his waist, face and hips. Behind him, stands Usoppu, holding his vaunted weapon, Kabuto, like a trophy of war – even more of my underwear fluttering on Kabuto in the wind like a pennant. On top of Usoppu's head sits the adorable, yet just as guilty, brown-furred rein-doctor. A pair of my 'under-clothing' tied around his neck and draped down his back like a cape - and what I am guessing – the last two pairs of my panties, decorating his fuzzy antlers._

_My screaming brought the rest of the pirates deck-side; allowing them to witness the crime. It was most embarrassing. Nami screamed in rage, Sanji keeled over from the sight of female panties, and was quickly/instantly joined by Brooke. Robin managed to hide her laughter behind her hand – wily her. Zoro's face went several shades of red, while Franky gave the stunt a thumb's up and a Supah label._

_It's true that everybody had different reactions, but I suppose mine was the most dramatic – and severe. I chased the trio, shouting for their heads and didn't stop. Three hours later, I managed to pin them in the crow's nest and use my Reiki-Reiki Aura to effectively seal all means of escape._

_XXX_

_Ah, now there, I have released them anyway and Luffy, jumping up into a frenzied excitement, comes bursting out of the window – I hope that comes out of his expense, not mine – and careens into the galley; shouting at the top of his lungs: MEAT!_

_I don't suppose Sanji will be too happy at all about that. Oh well. It should teach the cook to keep a better reign on his captain._

_Usoppu slumps to the floor of the crow's nest; relived to be free of Luffy's obnoxious presence and groans. Chopper lies on the floor; panting, trying to catch his breath._

_I propel myself forward by willpower and offer a sincere apology to Chopper; since he is the least guilty. Poor guy just wants to fit in and be accepted by his heroes. (Usoppu and Luffy) I then turn to the pile of Usoppu and lean forward, a smug smile on my lips._

'_I hope you've learned something today, eh, Usoppu?' I say._

'_Please forgive me.' He groans out._

'_What was that?' I faked not hearing him._

'_I-I-, I beg for your forgiveness, oh wonderful and masterful Captain Jiru!' Usoppu sputters out._

'_I forgive you.' I nodded sagely, having won. 'Since you groveled at my feet so quickly, your punishment will be less painful.'_

_A groan emitted from the sniper._

'_I shall allow you to collect the pieces of clothing you used for your prank – every single one of them – then go and wash them twice. Especially the pair that was on Luffy's face.'_

'_Is-is that it?' The sniper sits up straighter, now making eye contact with me. 'Why are you still writing in that book?'_

XXX

Jiru looked up from her writing and stared at the sniper. Blushing, she snapped closed the diary, slipped it into her side-hanging backpack, and muttered.

"Damn it, I'm not weird, I was just writing in my journal!" The semi-furious gold-thief looks away from the smirking sniper.

"Right. Seriously, Luffy and I had you so pranked!"

"Yea, whatever, I don't think it'll happen again, right?" Leaning in closer to Usoppu with a glint in her eye, Jiru smiled evenly.

"No-no, not on Captain Usoppu's watch!" The black-haired sniper stated. "I don't want to ever be with Luffy again when he's that hungry."

"And you, Chopper?" the treasure hunter turns her attention to the doctor. "No more planning to steal my panties?"

"NO! No more panties!" Chopper stutters out, sitting up on the wet-with-drool crow's nest floor. "Luffy was going to eat me!"

"Oh not really, I wouldn't have allowed that."

"Really, Jiru?" Chopper made doe-eyes at the floating woman.

"Honestly really."

"Wwaaaaaahhh!" Chopper cried out and leapt into her arms; still remaining in his small form.

~You guys better get down here for your lunch before Luffy eats it all.~ the inter-ship speaker system rang with Nami's voice. ~And Jiru…you owe Franky 10,000 beri for the windows.~

"DAMN!" The Golden Thief cringed in annoyance. It wasn't going to be Luffy's fault this time.

"Well, let's go before the idiot eats it all." Usoppu stated, picking himself up and moving to the exit.

"Nope, not before you pick up my panties and put them in the washer." Jiru smirked as she held Chopper with one arm and pointing to the articles of clothing on the floor with the other.

"See you at lunch!" she called before floating out of the busted window. "I'll be sure to save you some."

XXX

The two criminals spent the rest of their day cleaning laundry, fixing windows and avoiding the newly dubbed 'Mean-Queen'. Luffy was still laughing about when night fell and the Mugiwaras went to sleep.


	14. Redline

_Chapter 14: Redline_

Lying on her back on the patch of grass under one of Nami's Mikan trees, Jiru stared up at the blue sky; the one filled with cute fluffy white clouds. It had been little over a month since the Mugiwaras had left the horribleislandofThriller Barkbehind. Thirty mind-numbingly boring days; sitting and unable to do a fraction of her normal duties. She had been put off her regular duties by her captain due to her first major battle injury. Luffy was overly worried about her re-breaking her left foot, but no argument of hers could convince the captain she was just as capable of doing her regular duties as she was before.

However, the slow days weren't completely empty or void of fun. As the rule on the Grand Line, odd and weird things are bound to happen:

Such as the encounter with storm clouds that produced candy and sweets. THAT was insane, since Luffy was un-restrained to eat all the sugar he could get into his mouth. Most of the crew was split between keeping out of their captain's way, and trying to enjoy the edible rain also. It was a very long night for the Mugiwaras; since pairing Luffy with sugar ended up being a very bad idea. Franky had to make small repairs on hundreds of dents, teeth-marks and broken boards the next day.

There was the day they ran into a pack of Sea Raccoons. Sanji, Zoro and Franky all had to rescue their captain, the musician and treasure hunter as Luffy had dove in to save Jiru. The treasure hunter had been floating alongside the ship because she could (mostly to escape the boring tedium of just sitting there waiting for her left ankle to heal) when the Sea Racoons had leapt out of the sea and snatched the woman out of the air. Luffy, without rhyme or thought, jumped in to save her; Brooke, still in awe at Luffy's awesomeness, jumped in to save Luffy. Both pirates did not get along with sea water; so Luffy and Brooke sank as Jiru was still held captive by wily Sea-coons. The punishment given to the trio – captain, musician and hunter – left the trio sour for the rest of the day.

Then there was the day of the shaped rainbows. The Mugiwaras were driven bat-crazy as Usoppu, Luffy, Brooke, Jiru and Chopper all reacted differently to the odd weather patterns. The Golden Thief loved it, and kept on trying to capture the oval and spiral rainbows in bottles; Luffy wanted to try and eat the square/(meat) and circular/(meat) rainbows. Chopper found the triangular rainbows thrilling and Usoppu urged Brooke to play his violin for the squiggly heart-shaped rainbows. The sanity of the remaining crew was strained for the days after. The craft paper and crayons were used up as the more care-free pirates kept drawing the oddly-shaped rainbows again and again. (Luffy, Usoppu, Jiru and Chopper)

Another day held a rough ride as serpent currents appeared; giving the Navigator a workout. The mikan-loving woman was frantic as Luffy told her to just ride the currents. It took another three days to navigate out of the 'serpent's-nest' and by then, poor Nami was wrung out.

Their most recent Grand-Line oddity was their encounter with the golden Sea-Water. Both Nami and Jiru nearly came to fisticuffs in their attempts to be the first to 'steal' the gold ocean water. They both ended up with equal shares of the liquid-gold by the end of the day, having acquired most of the golden patch of water. Franky played his part, by allowing the women to use one of his pumps in sucking up the precious water.

Sanji, also, had fallen victim to the feminine wiles of the two thieves, as they conned the cook out of nearly every empty bottle and container he had. Franky – the ever present shipwright – ended up having to partition off a section of the fish tank in order to contain the gold sea water. It was entertaining to watch how the two females ended up joining together and combining their clever ideas in stealing the golden sea water.

To Robin, it was all very amusing, but to the rest of the crew, it was very confusing. Just what the two gold-loving females were going to do with thirteen gallons of salty, liquid-gold; nobody knew. Luffy was upset that it wasn't edible and promptly forgot about it. However, the fool was entranced every time he walked by the golden section of the fish tank, the novelty of sparkling golden water new each time.

Zoro just didn't care, and Usoppu found the water to be a bit scary. He stayed far away from the shimmering gold liquid just in case. Chopper was glued to the gold-side of the fish tank, his nose pressed against the panel as he watched the golden water.

It was quickly discovered that certain types of fish could live in the gold water. THAT was something that rocked the core of Sanji, Nami, Luffy, Jiru and Usoppu's worlds. The possibilities of new recipes/worth/food/fun/inventions dawned in each of their minds. It seemed that the Golden Sea Water was worth something after all. Usoppu was no longer afraid of the water, but of Nami; she would charge him for every ounce of water he wanted – he could only get three ounces for 300,000 Beri before going broke.

XXX

That adventure was two days ago and today, the happy-go-lucky pirate captain was currently off somewhere on the large ship, goofing around with Usoppu, Chopper and their newest crewmate, Dead Bones Brooke.

Sanji, like always, was in the galley, creating some awesomely tongue-numbingly sweet fru-fru drink or mid-afternoon snack. He often did this for the three females – her, Nami and Robin – and the treasure hunter found that to be quite endearing; even from the beginning.

Nami was discussing something with Robin back in the woman's dorm; and Brooke was on the upper part of the deck, playing his violin for the dancing Luffy and Usoppu. It was soothing to hear the musician's violin every evening before sleep. The walking skeleton was actually amazingly talented, offering a wide variety of songs and notes on a single violin.

Zoro most certainly was in the crow's nest working out or sleeping. She had avoided talking to the macho-minded swordsman since the Panty-thief incident, thirteen days ago. The swordsman had serious been upset at her for trapping the panty-stealing captain in a big box. She had argued that it had done no real harm, since the rubbery captain had only been trapped for ten minutes – and she would have let him go had Luffy really seriously asked her. With that annoying problem put out of her mind, the Golden Thief was currently enjoying the warm weather and sunshine.

It was after lunch when the posted look-out, Franky, had spotted land. The land would be the Red Line; the second, dividing half of the Grand Line. After the excitement of the crew, it was said that the E.T.A would be an hour. Luffy wanted Jiru to go out and inspect the huge mountainous feature, but everyone voted against it, opting to wait until they came closer.

So now it was a waiting game. Jiru had opted to lie underneath the Mikan trees while she waited to scout the Red Line for a way over. To her left, sat her storage bag; some of its contents spilled out over the grass. Two tiny vials of her golden water sat in a sunspot, glittering in the light. Her drawing book laid open on her right, the half-sketched image of Sunny-Gou on the page.

Centimeters from her fingertips was the gift Luffy had given her, the unicorn horn he had the Shadow-Victim Pirates had hunted for at Luffy's request. Just how his mind processed in getting the horn as a gift for her was completely beyond any of the Mugiwara's minds. Jiru had thanked her captain profusely and managed to spend the next two weeks prank-free.

"ichworminchworm…" Came Luffy's voice minutes later,

Jiru, her trip down memory lane interrupted, opened her lagoon-hazel eyes and looked to her right. Luffy was currently pulling himself towards her, with his chin. He was acting like a caterpillar, scrunching his body together, before dragging himself ahead with his face.

"Luffy, whhaaat are you doing?" Jiru rolled over to face the goofy captain.

"I'm an inchworm, Jiru, I'm traveling around without the use of my legs or arms." He chuckled as he moved slowly towards her.

"I see that." She smirked. "Like me, eh, waiting until we get to the Red Line."

"Yup." He answered. "If you want to move like this too, you can."

"You are aware that inchworms won't last that long after they cross the Redline."

"Then I'll have to be a strong inchworm."

"Yea, I guess you'll have to be." Jiru laughed openly as the look of fierce determination lit Luffy's face. "Inchworms change into butterflies, I think."

"I'll promise to protect you." Luffy was another foot closer, speaking seriously to her. "I won't even let paper cut you!"

"That's awfully brave and noble of you, Luffy." The treasure hunter blushed. "I'll become stronger too! That way you won't worry about me that much."

"But, Jiruuuuuuu…" Luffy whined. "I don't want you to fight and get hurt. You're no good at fist-fights."

"Then I'll be the best got-your-back fighter ever. You'll never have to worry about watching your butt in a fight."

"SHISHISHISHISHISHI! Jiru, you said butt!" Luffy laughed.

"Yea, like the words you used in my journal?" Jiru looked meaningfully at her captain. "It took me days to find my journal, you stinker."

"I know, I hid it well!" Luffy answered. "Did you like what I wrote?"

"Yea, you idiot. I read it all. I had to get Robin's help with the words you used."

"I'm so smart!" Luffy's chin was now touching her elbow.

"Sure, Luffy, sure."

The pirate captain was in the process of inchworming his way over Jiru's stomach when the shadow fell over the Sunny-Gou. They had made it to the Red Line.

Luffy, springing off of his treasure hunter using his hands and feet - placed on either side of her – and hollered in excitement. Running to the front of the ship, he landed himself on Sunny's leonine head and laughed.

"Look everybody! It's the Red-Line!" Luffy's voice rang out on the deck.

The pirates, having paused at their tasks, congregated at the ship's stern to get a better view. As the Sunny-Gou drew closer and closer to the iron-red land feature, the group all gasped in awe. There, right in front of them…was the Red-Line.

Indeed, it was. After hardships and adventures galore, the Mugiwaras had made it to the half-way point of their voyage. At last, they made it!


	15. Submarines & Mermaids

_Chapter 15: Submarines & Mermaids_

"I can't believe it…!" Luffy whispered excitedly. "We…we made it!"

"Talk about nostalgia…" Nami exhaled with a sigh as she leaned against the railing, looking at the red feature that shot into the sky. "This land loops around the whole world, and is connected to the Reverse Mountain that we went through."

"That was one hell of a storm we went through, that day." Sanji took a drag of his cigarette and let out a puff of smoke.

"We've all certainly grown a lot, since then, too." Zoro smirked at Jiru as she floated nearby. She groaned and rolled her eyes.

_Fifty years…_ Brooke thought as he just stared upward with empty sockets. _Fifty years since that fateful day. Yo-ho-ho-ho-ho!_ Then Brooke looked thoughtfully at the floating Golden Thief, thinking back on their sunrise, most private, discussion on the crow's nest of Thriller Bark. The girl wasn't what she appeared to be at all, if she was the same person as he had met that one time decades ago. That was another story, for another time.

"I can't believe we're only halfway done!" Luffy said. "The Twin Capes, where we met Laboon, are on the other side of this big world. I'm so glad we all made it this far!"

"It's…it's so huge…!" Chopper gasped, wide-eyes staring skyward. "I can't even see the top!" Usoppu was currently sobbing to himself; overwhelmed by the moment.

"I can't believe we're here…!" the sniper sniffled. "So much has happened since we crossed Reverse Mountain."

"You're darned right about that, Usoppu!" Jiru smiled as she floated nearby. "I was totally terrified back then. It seems like a lifetime ago for me."

"No kidding?" Chopper looked at the treasure hunter with wide eyes. "Why a lifetime?"

"It took me thirty years to find my way back to this world after fixing the tear in the Rainbow Fog." She continued, nonchalantly floating on an aura pad. "But what is time when you're with nakama?"

"Wow!" the reindeer gasped in awe. "You're so smart!"

"Why, thank you!"

"I came here from the West Blue only five years ago." Robin chuckled as the reindeer hung off the railing in awe at the floating female.

"As far back as I can remember…" Franky added his thoughts. "I went over the Reverse Mountain thirty years ago from the South Blue."

"I've been from the East Blue AND the Grand Line. Amazing, huh?" The treasure hunter laughed, getting odd looks from the others. "What? Doesn't it count if I came back from another dimension?"

"Sure it does, Jiru." Usoppu nodded sagely. "You did manage to find us at Water 7, didn't you?"

"You managed to find ME, Usoppu." The treasure hunter quipped hollowly. "I still don't regret coming back even though you said nasty things anyway, Sniper-stupid."

The memory that stood out the most - other than her unfortunate encounter with the red-haired CP9 version of Usoppu, Kaku - was the hateful things that Usoppu had said to her during the 'Losing the Merry-Gou' discussion that terrible evening. The Sniper had spoken words on how he felt on the leave of absence she had to take within the Rainbow Fog. She had been trying to offer comfort to ease the pain of having to replace their beloved Merry-gou.

The treasure hunter had no choice BUT to leave the Mugiwaras; having to fulfill her duty in reclaiming the part of her talisman and healing the tear in the time/space fabric. His words at her leaving that terrible evening had spurred the fight between him and Luffy – the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak. Having lashed out and insulted her honor and dignity, Usoppu had sent her crying from the room; and Luffy into a rage that led to the midnight fight for the un-sail-worthy Going Merry-Gou.

"Geez, I said I was sorry, Jiru." Usoppu flinched at the bad memory.

"Let's go up, Jiru-chan! Make me a float-pad!" The pirate captain sang loudly, interrupting his two best friends and their sour memories. "I wanna go up!"

"Wait just a minute, Luffy." Zoro's nearby voice rang out. "Don't be an idiot. We all agreed that we would think of something when we arrived."

"I know!" Luffy grinned excitedly over his shoulder. "I just wanna touch the mountain."

"Luffy, you're just being silly. We need to find a way down, not up." Jiru said. "I'm not going to even try to lift the Sunny-Gou with my Aura-pads."

"So what, I still wanna touch the Red Line!" Luffy pled further, making puppy eyes at the Golden Thief. "Let's go."

"Now hang on, Luffy." Nami interrupted, cutting her excited captain off from any impulsive decisions. "We shouldn't let our guard down even here. Right above us is the Marine headquarters, and the Holy Land of the World Government, Mariejois, is right next door!"

"So what'll we do, Sis?" Franky inquired.

"The only way we can get past them," Nami began. "Is if we went under the Red Line…through Fishman Island. So here is the strategy…"

XXX

Half an hour later, Jiru was floating idly, safely above the salty doom that was the ocean. The 'Surprise-Pool' that Franky had finally unveiled from one of his 'Docks' was in the water below her, holding Usoppu and Chopper. The pair was thoroughly enjoying the Channel 4 of the Soldier Dock System.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Usoppu laughed, splashing around like a moron. The treasure hunter would have been in the water otherwise, had Usoppu not came racing out of the male dorm in his swim trunks. The sight had been rather unexpected, and made her change her mind in joining cute little Chopper in the water. Usoppu tended to be a grope in the water.

"This Surprise Pool is so much fun!" Chopper laughed loudly as he floated upon the water with the aid of a floatation ring. "How come you aren't in the water, Jiru?"

"Oh, I just thought I would watch you two have fun and stuff." She smiled brightly as she answered the doctor.

"Liar!" Usoppu needled her. "You just don't want to wear your swimsuit while Luffy and Zoro aren't around to tease."

The crew all knew of her relationship with the green-haired swordsman since the 'incident' came to light for Luffy. Now, since it was out in the open, Usoppu was able to tease the girl back. They all knew the Golden Thief loved to tease the first mate with light innuendo. They all also knew Luffy liked Jiru like she liked Zoro. It was a love triangle alright, and it was funny as hell to poke fun at.

"That's not true!" the dark-haired woman denied uselessly. "I have a broken foot, in case you forgot, Usoppu. I have to keep it wrapped like the doctor says!"

"Pffft." Came Usoppu's disbelief. "Did you say that, Chopper?"

"Nope, I didn't."

"SHUT UP!" Jiru hissed as her façade was broken. "I'm not getting in and that's final!"

The two males chuckled at her; looking at each other with ideas.

Above, on the deck of the Sunny-gou, Nami was speaking into the receiver of a Den-Mushi with a blue shell and a mini straw hat on its head. Luffy, Robin, Zoro and Brooke had all chosen to use the _Shark Submerge III_ to see if they could find the Fishman Island entrance below.

"Robin? Luffy? Zoro? Brooke?" Nami asked into the speaker. "How's it going down there?"

~**Well, Miss Navigator-san, for one thing, I think Luffy-san might be a little sick.~ **Brooke's baritone voice came.

"What makes you say that?" Nami asked, concerned.

**~BLEEEEEEEEGH!~**

**~SHIT! DAMN IT, Luffy, I'm going to kill you!~**

**~He just threw up in Zoro-san's lap.~**

**~WHO THE HELL GAVE LUFFY WHATEVER THIS SHIT IS BEFORE HE GOT IN?~**

**~I believe Collector-san found it in her heart to gift her captain with carrots.~ **Robin's soft voice was heard.

**~Carrots! THAT CHIBI-BRAT, I'LL KILL HER TOO!~**

**~BLEEEEEEEEGH!~**

**~HOLY CRAP, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSE TO BE! LUFFY STOP PUTTING WEIRD SHIT IN YOUR MOUTH!~**

"What else is new?" Nami muttered darkly as Franky laughed next to her. The navigator gave the evil eye to the half-focused floating female below her. The girl had an ear cocked to listen to the conversation, pretending to not hear. It was a shame that the treasure hunter wore her emotions on her face, since the smirking grin on those lips gave her knowledge of Zoro's mishap away.

**~It's way too dark down here! We can't see a thing! WHOA!~** Luffy's voice finally was heard.

"What?" Nami asked. "What is it?"

**~I saw something pass us, just now!~**

Below the railing, Jiru was too busy listening to the Den-Mushi conversation and was caught off guard by Chopper and Usoppu. Lunging upward to grab a hold of her waist, the Sniper yelled in triumph as he managed to drag the treasure hunter off her floating aura pad and into the water. He would never allow her to sink into the depths; since she'd sink like a rock thanks to eating a Devil Fruit, so he kept his hands firmly around her torso; grinning his victory.

The now soaked Golden Thief squeaked in surprise; being shocked at being dumped into the drink.

"USOPPU!" She squealed. "NOOO, I'm all wet!"

**~AAAAAAAH! It's the eye of a giant sea beast! We'll get eaten alive! I'M GOING TO DIE!" **Brooke's panicky voice yelped. **"Even though I'm already dead. Yo-ho-ho-ho! Oh, one more thing; Nami-san, what kind of panties are you wearing today?~**

"WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP AND TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY, YOU IDIOTS!" Nami snapped at both Brooke's perverted question and Usoppu's antics.

"So scary…!" Chopper whimpered, cringing away from Nami above. Next to him, Jiru was attempting to pay Usoppu back for pulling her into the water. It was getting rather splashy and Chopper started laughing.

"Hey, you guys!" Franky called as he took the Den-Mushi from Nami's enraged hand. "The _Shark Submerge_ can only go down to five-thousand meters! Be SUPER careful down there, you hear me?"

XXX

Deep below the water line, cruising at five thousand and one feet depth within the _Shark Submerge III_, Luffy, Robin, Zoro and Brooke were exploring the dark currents of the sea. A strange creaking noise echoed through the small craft inwards, sending half the occupants into a flurry of frantic nervousness.

"What was that?" Brooke asked. "It sounds like the hull is creaking."

"That's because we just went over the five-thousand meter limit." Robin informed them.

"Ah!" Brook exclaimed, pounding a fist in his bony palm. "Then that means…WAIT! WE'LL GET CRUSHED BY THE WATER PRESSURE!"

Luffy, having finished clearing his mouth of the vomit-aftertaste, looked outside the porthole window. There, the boy swore he saw a huge red eye about his size glaring back at him.

"AH!" he yelped. "It's that monster, again! It came back!"

"It has a pretty huge mouth, doesn't it?" Robin quietly said.

"Quick! Let's get outta here!" Luffy ordered. "Turn Right, TURN RIGHT, ZORO!" The pirate captain tried to commandeer the steering wheel from the firstmate. "It's going to eat us!"

"Shut the hell up, you idiot!" Zoro growled back testily, as he tried to focus on driving the submarine and not touching the vomit on his pants. Then Luffy was in his space, trying to wrest control of the steering device from him. "What the hell? Get away, Luffy, I'm trying to steer!"

The shadowy figure of the monster tried to bite down on the _Shark Submerge III_, which managed to get away just in time as Zoro wrenched the steering rod to a hard right.

"Phew!" the rubber-man sighed. "That was a close one!"

"No thanks to you, Luffy." Zoro growled back. "I'm going to kick her ass for feeding you carrots."

"AAAAAAH!" Brook screamed. "RORONOA'S FACE IS SO SCARY, WE'RE ALL GOING TO BE SLICED AND DICED! SAVE ME!"

XXX

Above the water, the Mugiwaras all listened to the makeshift conversation through the Den-Mushi. Nami looked exasperated, Jiru was laughing her face off, Usoppu was sneaking a peek at the Golden Thief's wet panties as he pretended to help her climb up the side of the Sunny-gou to the deck and Chopper was stunned, looking fearfully in the water below him.

"I decided that I never wanna ride on the _Shark Submerge_." Chopper stammered as Usoppu lifted the small doctor out of the mini-pool. "Never."

"Welcome to the club, Chopper." Usoppu muttered back as he got a face-full of foot from the Golden Thief above him. She had caught him oogling at her panties. "Welcome to the club."

"This is just hopeless…" Franky growled as he lifted the trio over the railing. "Why I didn't decide to drive the Shark Submerge is beyond me now."

"You're telling me, Franiki." Jiru smiled politely at the shipwright and managed to nail Usoppu in the stomach with a light; backwards arm blow – further revenge for his panty peeking. The Sniper coughed once, and rolled his eyes.

"Oh, Nami-swaaaaaann! Jiru-chwaaaaann!" Sanji swooned as he pranced out from the galley and down the steps towards them. In his hand he carried a silver platter with artfully arranged sweets. Coming to a stop in front of the two females, the cook bowed low and offered theirs to them first, using a leg to keep the reindeer and sniper from ruining his serving technique.

"Your afternoon treats are ready! I made a delicious Thriller Bark Tart without the horror!"

The sweets looked absolutely delectable; each made up in cute little 'halloween' faces – such as bats, cats, pumpkins and skull-faces.

"Thank you, Sanji-kun." Nami thanked the cook as she took the tart. "This is so troublesome." She took a bite out of the tart. "But man, this is so good."

"Nami is soooo beautiful when she compliments me!" Sanji fell into his normal love-struck self.

"SO GOOD!" Usoppu, Chopper, and Franky as they each took a bite of their own tarts.

"I guess what you're saying is that it's just like when you all went up to the Sky Island, right?" a still soaking Jiru asked; ignoring the over-acting Sniper as he enjoyed his tart.

She had managed to finish hers with two bites – a shame really, she couldn't tiny-bite anything sweet from the cook; his concoctions were just too irresistible. The thief was now hanging off the love-struck Cook, trying to butter the sap into giving her another. He was in no condition to do anything thing much but breath and bask in the attention the woman was giving him.

"Yeah." Nami answered as she looked away from Sanji and down at the Log Pose, which had the needle pointing straight down. "Even if we know the heading, we have no idea to get down there! How are we going to get to Fishman Island?"

The _Shark Submerge III_ picked that moment to emerge from the depths below. Luffy, Robin, Zoro and Brooke emerged from the submarine's hatch.

"Where is SHE!" Zoro shouted as he leapt up from the hatch and onto the deck, looking around just once to register his prey. Having spotted her, Zoro crossed over the deck in two strides; a furious, angry mask on his face.

"Oops, times, up, gotta go!" Jiru peeled herself off Sanji and retreated upward on an aura pad. "I only gave him three carrots! I swear!" Jiru couldn't stop herself from laughing as Zoro stalked her, so very angry about the Luffy-vomit now falling off his pants.

"GET DOWN HERE AND TAKE YOUR PUNISHMENT LIKE A MAN, WOMAN!"

"No way, you'd enjoy it too much!" came her retort. "WAY too much."

"AND YOU WOULDN'T?" Zoro shouted back at her. He had forced her to retreat clear across the deck, over the railing and out above the water; where she floated defensively.

"MARIMO-BAKA!" Sanji's defensive voice finally entered the fight. "You leave her alone! Pick on somebody your own size, shit head!"

"SHIT-COOK! You stay out of this!"

"I'll kick your ass, Marimo!"

The other Mugiwaras all shook their heads in annoyance.

"Welcome back." Nami greeted, turning away from the trio's fight and towards Luffy. "So, what'd you find?"

"Nothing!" Luffy answered. "We can't go down, deep enough. Is Fishman Island really down there?"

"Yo-ho-ho-ho!" Brook chuckled; thoroughly focused on the three-way argument across the deck. "This is the first time I've ever ridden in a submarine!"

"We certainly would've died if we went any further." Robin chimed in. Nami sighed as she looked down at the Log Pose.

"The Log Pose's needle is still pointing downward." she said, continuing to ignore the loud words. "I should've asked Lola and her crew for help."

A loud, gurgling thrum was heard over the squabbling of the swordsman, cook and treasure hunter.

"Pardon me, Luffy-san?" Brooke inquired. "But was that your tummy grumbling?"

"No." Luffy answered as he was standing on the railing of the Sunny-gou, keeping an eye on the argument. "That was way too loud to be my tummy!"

"That sounded like it came from behind us…" Robin commented. The Mugiwaras turned to the rear of the ship and watched as bubbles formed on surface of the ocean, growing darker and larger. In the next moment, a huge, serpentine form shot up from the water and roared. The form had emerged right behind the floating Treasure Hunter.

"AAAAAAHH!" Usoppu screamed. "IT'S THE SEA MONSTER!"

"IT FOLLOWED US!" Brooke cried. The creature was revealed to be a huge sea-eel rabbit.

"JIRU LOOK OUT!" Luffy screamed at the stunned female.

She was clearly caught off guard, turning slowly to meet the maw of the monster. Those on the other side of the deck watched in horror as the gaping maw loomed over its prey. The Sea Eel-Rabbit prepared to swallow the overwhelmed Treasure hunter.

Several things happened at once. A blurring figure cut through the air as Zoro quickly jumped off-board the _Sunny_ in a single bound and easily engulfed the immobile girl in his arms and repelling himself off the chest of the serpent back towards the deck. Sanji, also, had jumped to Jiru's defense, using his powerful kick to slam the offending monster's mouth shut – it wouldn't do if Zoro had saved Jiru only to have them both eaten. Using his momentum, Sanji back-flipped back onboard; leaving his captain the finishing blow.

Luffy had used the precious seconds to wind up for his Gomu Punch and when Sanji kicked the mouth shut, used it to send the offensive beast into a world of hurt. Slamming his powerful rubber fist into the thing's stomach, Luffy grinned merrily as the Sea-Eel rabbit crumpled in on itself; turning from threat to trash.

"What a pushover." Usoppu cheered as the Strong Trio finished their work. "The thing wasn't even that big!"

"Yeah." Chopper agreed. "That's because we fought with Oz, before! That Sea Bunny was nothing! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"You fools! You're not the ones that almost got turned into food!" Jiru was currently ensconced in Zoro's strong arms, wet and shivering.

"Sorry!" Usoppu and Chopper bowed in apology. The Mugiwaras all watched as the once towering eel now fell back into the water. It was Sanji, with his uncanny female-radar eyes that spotted something flying out of the Eel-Rabbit's mouth.

"Hey…" the cook pointed and asked. "What's that?"

The Sea-Eel Rabbit slid back underwater and away from sight. As whatever or whoever it was fell from the air, the Golden Thief used her Reiki-powers to read the energy from the falling object.

"Holy Crap!" the Reiki-User exclaimed. "I don't believe it!"

"What is it! A fish?" Luffy questioned, now excited by the treasure hunter's reaction.

"Aaaaaaaa!"

"A person?" Usoppu asked.

"Both!" Jiru answered obviously.

"You don't think…!" Nami looked sharply at the other female.

"Aaaaaaaaa!"

"No freaking way…" Zoro commented as next to him, Sanji looked up with a huge heart popping out of his eye.

"CAN IT BE?" The love-sick cook swooned.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"It is." Jiru laughed at herself.

That somebody collided with Sanji, being saved from a bone-breaking landing. Something else landed nearby on its feet. The smaller thing looked like a starfish with a fashionable cap.

"W…what is that?" Luffy questioned. The figure that landed on Sanji looked like a young woman with spiky, lime-green hair, magenta eyes, a beige shirt with a star on it, and, oddly…a beige-pink fishtail where human legs should be.

"It's…" Nami started, eyes wide in surprise and shock. The Mugiwaras were looking at a real deal treasure of the ocean.

"A MERMAID?"


	16. Golden Thief Intel

_Chapter 16: Golden Thief_

"CAPTAIN GARP!" Coby shouted into the old man's room. The maroon-color hair of the marine-in-training flopped around despite the blue headband he wore to restrain it. The young man, age of 20, had long since been used to being around the old marine hero, Monkey D. Garp. So it wasn't too much of a shock to see the male sitting on the floor feeding crackers to a brown and white-spotted dog.

"There's someone here to talk to you, sir!" Coby saluted his mentor and captain. "The Marine Intelligence has found something interesting about one of Luffy's crew mates."

Behind the young male was the marine that needed to speak to the legendary marine hero. The older man had gone to Coby and asked the boy to take information to the mighty Garp. Now, having gotten in to see the old man, the marine, Jale McHale, was shivering in his black, knee-length boots. Standing five foot and six inches, the man had his short-cropped black hair restrained by the white and blue-insignia hat that showed him to be with Marine Intelligence.

"Well, what is it, then?" the gruff old man turned to the dime-a-dozen marine cad and fed himself a cracker. Coby stepped back, nodding to the other man; indicating the floor was his and he could speak.

"Well, sir." Jale began, the papers in his hand shaking along with the body part. "It has to do with the Golden Thief…sir."

Garp, being Garp, turned back to the tail-wagging dog to pat its head gently before sticking a thick, aged digit into his left nostril.

"Are you talking about that wily pirate woman that stole the Golden Den-Den Mushi that is used for the Buster call?" Garp was completely uninterested, and continued picking his nose. "The same woman that gave back the Golden Den-Den Mushi days later?"

"Yea, that Golden Thief." The marine stammered out, still in awe of Garp.

The old man thought back briefly on the short-statured female Mugiwara whom he met briefly in the island city of Water 7 while he visited his grandson, Monkey D. Luffy. The unassuming young woman was certainly shy and quiet enough to not be counted as a threat of any kind, but behind those lagoon-hazel eyes laid fierce, sharp intelligence. Garp hadn't expected for her to speak when she surprised them all in revealing she had the Golden Den-Den Mushi; stolen during the Buster Call's confusion on Enies Lobby. She stated that she had lifted it off the CP9's director right before the defeat of Rob Lucci.

Apparently, not even her captain; his good-for-nothing grandson Monkey D. Luffy, knew about her thieving skills. She hadn't given her theft much thought at the time, since one of the Mugiwara Pirates, the one known to the world as the Ohara Devil, was in trouble. The Golden Thief had earned the name because of the item of her theft; the Golden Den-Den Mushi. The young woman had the gall to give him the stipulation of never allowing the Golden Den-Den Mushi to ever be placed in the hands of an idiot like the CP9 director again if she returned it to the Marines.

Having easily accepted her offer, Garp had further scared the woman by laughing heartily at her guts in standing up to him and the Marines. When Garp figured out that his grandson had special feelings for the woman – no, Garp wasn't that stupid in the least – he decided to let her go free, since she at least returned the Marine's Buster Call. The last Garp saw of her, and his grandson, was when their ship – newly built, ready to sail AND being pursued by himself – took off in the sky, flying by propulsion.

"Uh…sir?" The man's voice came again.

"What?" Garp grunted, being snapped out of his sleepy reverie. "Don't you people ever let an old man get his rest?"

"Captain, Garp, sir." Coby finally stepped in to help his fellow officer. "Navy Intelligence finally found out more on the Golden Thief. Sir."

"Well stop yakking away about her and just tell me!" Garp finally managed to get off the floor and was now standing. "Why are the Marines still concerned with a small fry like that woman?"

"Well, sir, we think that she may be not of this world." Jale handed Coby the papers that he had brought with him. "Plus she is one of the Rookie 12, whose bounty is above the one hundred million mark."

"What do you mean: 'not of this world?'" Garp inquired skeptically.

"Well, we finally traced the island from where she came from, a small island in the East Blue by the name of Cocoyashi."

"So what? People are born on small islands all the time?" Garp was quickly losing interest. "That doesn't make them 'not of this world'."

"We finally managed to get the full story from a Captain Nezumi, sir." Jale spoke louder, now focusing on his report. "The marine states that she fell from the sky, she wasn't born on the island."

"Just give me the damned report and go away." Garp finally stood up, not wanting to small talk with such airheads. Jale stepped forward and handed the papers to Garp.

"Will that be all, sir?"

"Yes, now scram." Garp ordered gruffly and watched as both Coby and Jale retreat out the door.

Monkey D. Garp look briefly at the papers and threw them on his oaken wood desk. He could care less about some nameless pirate woman that Marine Intel had problems with. Then again, she was something different; something cut from another cloth. Turning away from the window and returning to the desk to spread the papers out – oh yes, this pirate woman had a seventy page report, only god knew how – to briefly look at the words written. Apparently this pirate woman had a long sheet of statistics, none of which Garp knew anything about. Continuing to peruse the papers, Garp stopped on the page headed: DEVIL FRUIT USER: REIKI-REIKI. That was an attention catcher, as Reiki was incredibly similar to Haiki, which only the strongest of wills were empowered with.

Pulling up a chair and brushing the statistical papers onto the floor with one hand, Garp opened a drawer on his left with the other. He reached in and removed a large blue book titled: AKUMA NO MI, a Book of Known Devil Fruits. Throwing it on the desk and opening it to the PARAMECIA-type section, Garp thumbed through the pages until he found the pyramidal blue fruit he was looking for.

**Reiki Reiki No Mi**  
><em><em> **Description: a turquoise/blue-colored pyramidal shaped fruit with upward curled points and a rounded bottom. Its thick, papaya-like skin is etched with sharp, imprinted swirls.**  
><em><em> **Aura-Aura Fruit**  
><em><em> **Powers:** This fruit grants the user the ability to see and manipulate 'Auras' or energy given off by all living things, namely the kinetic energy flowing through the air. Its main use is the ability to create air-barriers, or walls of compressed energy. To do this, the user must concentrate and guide and form the energies with his or her mind and will power.  
>Further uses for this fruit are the ability to see – visually – someone's history, the ability to see a person's aura or energy off-put, and with training, the ability to transplant energies into other people. The boundaries for this energy manipulation are endless, and fueled by necessity and imagination.<br>It's incredibly similar to the Haiki effect, with lies dormant within all living things.  
>Its main weakness, like all Akuma No Mi is contact with sea water or kairoseki (sea stone)<br>__ **Type: Paramecia**

This was one powerful Akumi no Mi to have. Garp smiled in spite of himself. The unassuming young woman had found quite the powerful weapon to use. Flipping the book shut, Garp continued to browse her file, reading up to the point of her involvement with the Island-Ship 'Thriller Bark.'

It was slightly impressive, Garp thought. She had been the least injured in most of the Mugiwara Pirates adventures. From his grandson's first brush with infamy by defeating Arlong, to evading capture in Rogue Town, to defeating the organization known as Baroque Works, to stealing the Golden Den-Den Mushi and evading the CP9 and finally playing part in taking out another Shichibukai at Thriller Bark; she was always there, assisting the Mugiwaras in battle with her decisive smarts and cleverness. The way the report described it, it almost was like the girl knew future events and used the knowledge to the Mugiwara's benefit.

But knowing the future was impossible, right? Garp blinked as he leaned over to pick the first half of the report up off the floor. The section was labeled 'Cocoyashi Village.' The report stated, by a low-ranking common marine, that the girl's appearance was a complete mysterious; as she was stated to have fallen from the sky. Garp knew there were such nations in the sky like Skypiea and Overland and Mariejois, but her physical features marked her as not a native-born sky being.

Reaching over to pick up his coffee, Garp continued to read her file. He regretted taking a sip of the luke-warm liquid as he promptly spray-spitted it out as he read the next page.

"WHAT!" the old man shouted. His face grew stormy and surprised. Jumping up to tower over the paper on the desk, Garp cursed at his grandsons and the report. According to the black-inked letters on the paper; Garp could very well possibly be a great-grandfather.

"I'm going to kill that boy!" Garp slammed a fist on the desk and called out. "COBY!"

Instantly, the marine-in training threw open the door and stood at attention. Garp barely was coherent enough to be aware of the other person next to his young protégé. Helmeppo was the other young man that Garp took under his wing. The male stood at five foot and three inches; wore his blonde hair straight and covered his eyes with a thin band of visual-assisting glasses. There were more features to be recognized, but Garp, at this time, did not care in the least.

"Yes Sir?"

"We're going on a short trip to Impel Down, boys, I want to have a friendly little chat with one of the incarcerates there." Garp stalked over to pull his jacket off the hook and threw it on his back.

"O-Ok, Sir, but why?" Coby stammered out. "Do we have to go?"

"Follow me, boys, and just don't talk." The aged marine hero thundered out the door, not caring who or what was in his way. He was going to have a little heart to heart with his older grandson, Portgas D. Ace, and questions were going to be answered.

In the back of his mind, Garp laughed outrageously; it would seem that the Golden Thief was a thief of more than just treasure and Den-Den Mushis. The shy woman had caused – would most likely cause – a huge ripple in the current case of the Marine's planned war against Whitebeard.

He reminded himself to research more of the 'Rainbow Fog' phenomenon when he returned. The Golden Thief had somehow managed to utilize that to time-travel into the past and create something there. Was it possible that the shy and quiet woman could possibly have conceived in the present and borne a child in the past?

Garp could only speculate at this point, but had a damn good hunch that the girl was one figure from the past. How she managed to pull that stunt off was beyond him. Maybe, just maybe, she was truly 'other-worldly.'


	17. Takiyoki Tales

_Chapter 17: Takiyoki Tales_

"So let me get this straight." Jiru, the Mugiwara treasure hunter, reclined on her aura pad, floating in the evening air three feet above the Takiyoki boat bottom; which put her even with the burning hot baking slate that the eight-armed fishman was currently slaving away at. By his side, the mermaid Camie and starfish, Pappug, were helping him by applying the special sauces and putting them on the serving plates.

In front of the cooking octopus, sat four male pirates; nakama: Chopper, Usoppu, Luffy and then Brooke. In the collector's hands, she held a plateful of fried – oh so delectable – octopus balls. She had opted to sit behind the now occupied seats and used her Reiki-Reiki powers to levitate her share of takiyoki to herself, trying and succeeding in avoiding Luffy's fast hands.

"I won't stop!" Luffy sputtered out; his mouth full. "I CAN'T stop! These takiyoki are SO AWESOME!"

"They really are…" Sanji said. "How does he get the sauce so rich?"

"It's nice eating on a ship like this." Usoppu spoke with his mouth full.

"This is the second time I've ever experienced the culture of takiyoki!" Brooke declared. "So delectable!"

It was three hours after the mermaid had fallen on Sanji; having been exhumed from an attacking Sea-Eel Rabbit's stomach. Like a lynchpin of fate, the mermaid's presence was something that started an avalanche of events that turned, of course, into an adventure.

At the moment, the Sunny-Gou, having traveled away from the Redline and away from a man-built island where the adventure took place; was floating alongside the Takiyoki boat that she, Luffy, Chopper, Nami, Usoppu, Sanji, Brooke, the mermaid (Camie), the starfish Pappug and their newest friend, the eight-armed octo-man Hachi were all on; talking and eating. It was funny, ironically so, that the Mugiwaras were now eating food made by once-enemy hands. But that was the way they rolled, and she wouldn't change it one bit.

"So, after Camie called her friend, 'Hachin', via private Den-Mushi, she found out that the Flying Fishmen and some idiotic Makuro Gang Fishmen had ended up capturing Hachi and wanted to use Hachi as bait to capture Camie?" Jiru finished chewing an octo-ball and swallowed.

"That's right, so when we went to the Flying Fishman's base, we found out that Hachin was really Hachi, from Arlong's crew." Usoppu nodded in agreement, shoving takiyoki into his own mouth.

"So then you all refused to save Hachi-n and attempted to turn around when Camie jumped in to save her friend, and started the whole thing?" the treasure hunter, like Nami, had been abused under Arlong's brutal rule, part of which Hachi had been crewed – it all seemed like decades ago to her.

"Here, try these, these were made with soup stock and these rice cakes inside!" Camie the mermaid spoke up.

"Help yourselves!" Hachi exclaimed. "Eat as much as you want! Today, they're on the house! It's our way of saying thanks, Nyuu!"

"Hey, Luffy-chan, I'm going to eat more than you!" Jiru sought out a battle she knew she'd lose.

"You will not!" Luffy's retort came. It was on, and the two pirates gorged themselves.

"So, uh…Nami…Jiru…Nyuu…" Hachi called, rather nervously. "How is it? Good, right? Nyuu~!"

Luffy, Sanji, Chopper, Brooke and Usoppu paused in their eating. Nami turned to look at Hachi. Her gaze seemed cold and rather emotionless. Hachi felt his heart beating tenfold with fear. The green-brown eyes of the collector glanced over to the demure and separated navigator at the front of the boat; where Nami sat quietly, eating her own plate of takiyoki and watching the whole scene with indifference. Jiru kept silent; and wondered what Nami would say next.

"This doesn't mean that I forgive you, you know." Nami finally stated.

"N-no, of course not!" Hachi trembled. "That's not I what I meant, at all! Nyuu~! I just wanted to know if it tastes good or not! Honest!"

A pause came. Then, Nami just smiled, gently.

"Yeah." she said. "These are delicious!" Hachi stared at Nami in surprise.

"Really?" The octo-fishman asked. "You mean it?"

Luffy, Jiru, Chopper, Brooke, Usoppu, and Sanji all heaved sighs of relief. Nami may not have forgiven Hachi, but at least she was nice to compliment on his cooking, and that was progress towards civility. Camie laughed as she headed to the back.

"All right, guys!" the mermaid called. "Keep it going! There's plenty to go around!"

"Will somebody tell me more of the flying Fishmen adventure!"

Jiru relaxed between Nami and the rest; still floating mobile on her aura pad. Luffy, Chopper, Usoppu, Sanji and Brooke all sat in the seats, so she was left to float on her aura pad; trying to talk through their backs. The reason for her inquiries of the fishman adventure was because she had slept through nearly the whole thing.

XXX

_Three Hours Earlier:_

_Zoro lifted her up off the grass and across his shoulder; breaking the treasure-collector's concentration on the freshly fallen mermaid. Jiru blinked in confusion as she now rested on Zoro's white-shirted back._

"_Hey, what are you doing?" she asked. "Don't you wanna see Sanji die by view of a Mermaid?"_

"_No, not really." Came the answer._

"_I wanna see the mermaid, then."_

"_No, I'm taking you in to change your wet bandage." Zoro interrupted her refusal. "How come you're all wet anyway?"_

_The pair had left the excited deck scene and had gone into the first-mate's bunk; which currently had a few changes of her clothing. She had opted to stay and use the room since her accident on Thriller Bark. Franky had stated the room would have normally been for the ship's first mate – Zoro – but since the swordsman slept everywhere but, the room was unused; so she took it._

"_Usoppu pounced and dunked me underwater while you and Luffy were in the submarine."_

"_Hm." Zoro smirked at her as he tossed her onto the bed. "You know I haven't forgiven you for feeding Luffy carrots."_

"_Oh great, now the bed is wet." Jiru, her skirt and half her shirt still wet from Usoppu's pool attack, stopped and looked up into Zoro's eyes and squeaked. The way he looked at her was very…inappropriate and lust-filled._

"_Uh, so…I'll…get you a change of clothes too?" She ended up turning her statement into a hesitant, nervous question – she wasn't sure Zoro was going to do to her._

"_I think not." What happened next was extremely satisfying for both of them; once on the bed and in the shower, then again on the bed._

XXXX

When Jiru had awoke again, Luffy was knocking on the door; ranting about takiyoki and adventure. That was thirty minutes ago and it had been surprising to find out that she had slept for three hours; whereas Zoro had reappeared fifteen minutes later; and took part in the adventure - damn the swordsman's stamina. At least he had the decency to leave her fully clothed in fresh, dry cloths and change her bandage.

So that was where she was now; trying to get a full account of what she had missed.

"So when you refused to save Hachi, Camie jumped in and was promptly caught by the Makuro gang?"

"That's right." Chopper nodded.

"Then Luffy decided to save Camie despite Hachi being her friend?"

"Ibb not like I wabted too, but I hab too." Luffy's stuffed-takiyoki full mouth barely held the takiyoki and emitted his words. `it's not like I wanted to, but I had too.'

"Shuush, Luffy, don't touch the hot black thing, you'll get burnt." Jiru smirked at her food-focused captain; whom promptly yowled in pain as his rubbery hand grabbed hot surface rather than the quickly-disappeared takiyoki balls that the octo-man could barely cook fast enough.

"Then Duval came out and wanted to kill Sanji for having his face put on the wanted posters." Brooke finally put his two cents in. "It was very, ah, odd."

"LIKE HELL IT WAS ODD! I SWEAR I'LL KICK YOUR ASS IF YOU TELL ANY MORE OF THAT STORY!" Sanji's irate, booming voice rang out from above. She and Brooke looked over to see the fuming cook leaning back in the takiyoki seat; looking for the world like he was about to go on a murderous rampage. It looked like the adventure had left Sanji very…angry – like some horrible, traumatic event had happened.

"Oh, my…" Brooke said.

"Are…you yelling at me, Sanji-kun?" Jiru looked over, and acted offended as she started another plate of takiyoki.

"Nooooooooooooooooooo, Jiru-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" Sanji had to be schizophrenic, the way he reacted to the women. Like a switch, his murderous visage changed into a sappy, love-struck goofy expression. The blonde cook's body went from rigid to boneless, as he bent backwards; hands clasped against his face as he viewed his treasure hunter with adoring eyes.

"Stop doing that, Jiru." Nami's cold voice interrupted her nakama's coy play.

"Hm, sorry, Nami-chan, I won't tease Sanji-kun any more, this evening." Jiru looked away Sanji and turned back towards the takiyoki maker. "So the Duval comes out and picks a fight with you guys? Is that what made the ship roar?"

She thought back to how she had been awoken from her nap by a sudden, backwards thrust of the Sunny-Gou, then a minute later, by a ship-wide roaring sound that mimicked a fusion-energy cannon – which, by the way, had no possible way of being on this world; the technology was not even close.

"Nope." Usoppu had grabbed another share of takiyoki before turning around to face her to launch into a story, which would include whatever fabrications he could spin up in his head.

"Heads up, Luffy, we have company." Indeed, before she could ask for any more of the adventure she missed, the collector sensed somebody coming towards them. A greeting of 'Hellooooooo Young Masters' was heard and they all turned towards the voice.

The person who showed his face was somebody she had never met before, and the treasure hunter ignored him as she turned to watch Hachi making the more rounds of takiyoki for their evening meal. Since the others were currently talking to the new visitor, whose name she made out to be Duval – the same man that Brooke had reported who had threatened to kill Sanji – Jiru figured she would study the octopus for a while. When she had last seen him the fishman was dying under water; dying from losing to Zoro in a sword duel.

While Hachi had been part of the problem, and taken out like trash since he had threatened Luffy's nakama, the dark-haired collector figured the octoman was good at heart. He was the one that had saved her when she had first dropped into this world. Without him and his good heart, she would have died twice; once from drowning, or a second time from being physically beaten by Arlong. Unlike Nami, Jiru had long since forgiven the fishman for being in Arlong's crew. Luffy's treasure hunter thought back to the beginning, before she had met Luffy.

XXX

_Having fallen out of the dimensional rifts and dropping into the ocean, she had managed to catch glimpse of land nearby. However, it was still a good ways off, so she had to swim to get there. It was further than she expected and soon she was too exhausted to put up a fight when she can face to face with a Merman. It was during her last-ditch effort to make it to land before her body stopped working that she became Arlong's new prisoner. Hachi, the eight-armed octopus fishman, had been swimming towards her to find out just what a human was doing 'swimming away from the village.'_

_Unable to do anything but mutter his name, she had no choice but to submit and be taken back to land. Once there, she met Arlong and crew – a very infuriated Arlong – on his home turf; Arlong Park. Sea-water soaked and feeling fatigued, she could only tremble in horror as Arlong proceeded to physically beat her for 'trying to escape the village.'_

_However, it was her half-completed diamond pendant that saved her life. The very thing that had pulled her into this world – she was on a long and confusing journey through time and space to find the broken pieces of her talisman – had turned her fate. Having fallen out of her pocket while she was beaten, the trinket caught the sharkman's eye and curiosity. Jiru was too injured to stop Arlong as he claimed her personal treasure. Using what remained of her strength, she had answered the shark-man's probing questions, earning her the title of Arlong's pet; since her human body, oddly, smelled like sea-foam – which was pleasing to Arlong's nose._

_She sealed her fate by proclaiming herself as a no-fail treasure hunter – she had a sixth-sense that always guided her to treasure. Of course, being extremely dubious, the mermen put her to the test and hid her pendant, making her use this so called 'sense' to find it; and she did, leading Arlong to not only her pendant, but the hidden chest of Beri in the back room. Proving herself a bona-fide talent, she knew it would be the end of her life if she did not follow Arlong's ruthless law to the letter – she could not afford to die. On top of that, Arlong took her to the Cocoyashi village and told her that if she didn't become his precious treasure hunter, he would kill the villagers. The shark-man had introduced her to the villagers and stated that she was responsible for their lives._

_She would silently bear the burden; as it was a grim situation for all human parties involved. Arlong had claimed her diamond pendant as payment for her living on the land;and ordered her to live in Arlong Park. This was her fate for the next week, as the mermen put her to work on grunt-work._

_Little comfort was received from the villagers when she had business among them. They rejected her desperate attempts at friendship; telling her that she was better off accepting her lot in life. However she did learn their names and stories, as she spent time in the village whenever she could. The only thing she could do was take the abuse Arlong and his bullies dished out; hoping to find a way to get her diamond pendant back from Arlong – something her newly found treasure-sense told her he always kept with him – and escape._

_It was on the seventh day of brutal toil that Kuroobi – Arlong's right-hand merman – came and ordered her to search the Cartography room for any 'treasure'. Dragging her in there and stating that any failure on her part would result in multiple deaths in the village, the mermen sneered and mocked her as she searched the roomful of papers. After hours of looking at nearly every page of ink-drawn papers, Jiru came up with two pages of nondescript pages of the surrounding villages. Maps of Gosa and Cocoyashi; both having a red X marked on them. She knew that by handing over the maps, she would be betraying somebody's secret treasure location. But the slimy fishman had simply smiled at her and dragged her back out to Arlong, who was sitting in the chair that over-looked the Arlong Park bay._

_The back-stabbing proceeded from there as sting-ray fishman claimed to have 'caught' Jiru snooping around the Map room. The false accusation was enough to send Jiru into a verbal outcry; denying the crime. For her reaction, Arlong back-handed her hard: sending her flying at the feet of none other than a returning Nami. The returning navigator simply looked down at her, frowned and stepped over; giving a questioning glance to Arlong._

_Arlong simply laughed; as did the other mermen, as the terrible shark-man welcomed home the cold-hearted woman. Nami's coldness hit Jiru deeper than the bullying of the mermen; Jiru had expected to meet Nami in a better situation. Slowly pulling herself onto her feet, she heard Arlong tell Nami that the Cartographer could do whatever she pleased with their new 'treasure-hunter.' This caught Nami's interest as she stalked over to a bruised-face Jiru and inspected the shorter girl._

'_You should have stuck with Luffy, Nami; he'd never treat you like trash.' She had whispered to the red-head's face. The comment earned her another blow to the gut as Nami had masked her complete surprise. The action spurred laughter from the mermen as Nami acted tough and ordered her to go and sit next to Arlong's lounge chair and not to move until further ordered._

_She had stared confused at Nami, earning another slap to the face as the woman dragged Jiru over by the chair and threw her down. To the mermen, it was pure entertainment; to her, it was confusion – not knowing how to handle the situation – nor expecting Nami to be so damned cold. So she ended up sitting on the cold stone floor next to Arlong._

_She was sitting there, still, an hour later when some mermen dragged in Roronoa Zoro. Seeing the swordsman at a short distance was like a slap to the heart; he was that recognizable. Even though his upper torso was bandaged like a mummy and his hands were bound behind his back; those sharp eyes had missed nothing – he had read the confliction and recognition in her eyes._

_They volume of exchange between them happened all in the gaze. Feeling suddenly like her former self – the aches of physical and mental abuse slipping into nothingness – she had broken eye contact, looking away so Arlong wouldn't use the exchange as an excuse to beat her, or to kill Zoro._

_Zoro's greeting to Arlong had been enough to return her to herself and laugh; which was a mistake, because Arlong had hit her and ranted about the superiority of Mermen. Things became tense as Nami showed up. Zoro became angry, trying to talk sense into Nami, as Nami told him she simply used him and the others to get treasure. One comment led to another as Zoro tested Nami. Finding herself holding her breath as the seconds ticked by, she was relieved when Nami leapt into the water to pull him out. Relief was evident on her face as Nami doomed Zoro to the prison cell; claiming she would kill the swordsman later._

_Her rescue had arrived later, after Arlong and his henchmen exited Arlong Park with evil intent. Half hour later, Nami left with a bouquet of flowers; saying nothing to the remaining Mermen nor Jiru; who remained seated by Arlong's seat, watching the scene with curious eyes._

_It was minutes later when Zoro came from the building, slicing up the mermen that stood in his way. She had watched in awe as the swordsman made short work of the offending mermen. It had been unnerving when Zoro focused on her._

'_What the hell are you?' Was his question._

'_A treasure hunter that's lost her treasure and a soul adrift in the streams of time and space.' She had answered; making Zoro laugh at her absurdity._

_Whatever other words they were going to exchange were interrupted by Hachi's trumpeting; as the Octo-fishman was on the other side of the rock-wall that blocked off the ocean from the bay. Giving an inquisitive look, Zoro stood up and held out his hand to her, offering freedom and she took it._

_Speaking to Hachi, she managed to convince the Octo-Man that Zoro was an important guest and had to be taken to Cocoyashi village to meet Arlong immediately. So it was with an amused Zoro, asking Jiru to accompany him to 'Arlong' that the two humans left Arlong Park on Hachi's Pot-Transportation. Once at Cocoyashi village, she felt bad for lying to the octo-man, since he had only been nice to her. But enough had been enough, she was going to strike back at Arlong._

_xxx_

_Back at Arlong Park, Usoppu was in huge trouble, having been brought to an extremely volatile Arlong. Fortunately, Nami was there to use circumstances to fake Usoppu's death, kicking him into the water. After being celebrated as a cold-hearted witch, Arlong's right-hand man admitted to being convinced by her loyalty; which Nami only responded that she was an ally. It was to that extent, that Kuroobi showed Nami the map that Jiru had found for him; only he twisted the story around and explained that the treasure-hunter was after the place marked on the map._

_Nami, of course, was outraged that her treasure map was being handled by a fishman, and Arlong told Kuroobi to give Nami back her map. However, the damage was done and the seed of hate was planted against her; as Nami knew the treasure hunter was going to steal the treasure. Nami had stormed out of the park in search of her; with intent to kill._

_xxx_

_All this happened while she was with Zoro, searching for Usoppu; who was undoubtedly in trouble. Upon hearing an unidentifiable noise, she freaked out and stopped Zoro, asking him what the noise was. Indeed, despite of Zoro's ignorance, there came out of the trees, a flying boat. Shoving her out of the way, Zoro was impacted by the boat on which his friends and captain rode; which dug its way another eight yards before stopping._

_She had followed the long furrow of land to see if Zoro was still alive after having a flying boat dropped on him and thus, she met Luffy and Sanji. Sanji, of course, was himself and fell head over heels in love with Jiru, flattering her with compliments. Luffy, however, asked Zoro why he brought a Not-Nami – Jiru – and Sanji yelled at Luffy for calling her the wrong name. _

_She had introduced herself as a treasure hunter, who was enslaved to the Arlong Pirates. She then told them that Usoppu was in trouble and Arlong might kill him._

_One of Zoro's friends, Johnny, appeared dramatically and announced that Usoppu was already dead, killed by Nami. Luffy vehemently denied this, as Nami would never kill nakama. Nami herself appeared and questioned Luffy. Luffy told her it was to find and bring her back._

_Then the arguing began and Nami told them all off; ordering them to leave and never come back. She had opened her mouth and ordered Nami to just stop acting all high and mighty and let Luffy help her. She informed Nami; saying before the day turned out, Nami would be all too happy to set sail on the Merry-Gou once again. Nami stepped up and told Jiru to get lost before Arlong found her again. Luffy had asked her to stay as he fell backwards to sleep. Minutes of quietness past as Jiru paced back and forth, getting antsy enough to have Luffy ask her how she knew what she knew._

'_I know things, small future events, in this world. Like how each of you met and how you came here and why you're looking for Nami. I fell from the sky only to be captured by Arlong. I'm a treasure hunter, which saved my life.' She had told Luffy. She used her 'treasure' sense and told them each of their treasures and/or dreams._

_Luffy had been thoroughly impressed by her ability and asked her to join his crew. She had jumped on the chance, but told them all that Arlong had stolen her personal treasure and she intended to get it back. The quiet time was interrupted by Sanji's comment of wondering if Nami had really killed Usoppu. Zoro had responded with his own crass answer which infuriated Sanji; making them fight; until Usoppu ran into the crossfire. Luffy had freaked out over Usoppu and his injuries._

_Nojiko showed up, and began telling them Nami's troubled past. Luffy walked off, stating he didn't care and Jiru followed him, politely telling Nojiko it really didn't matter as Nami was coming with them regardless. So Jiru had purposely missed Nami's heart-breaking story; feeling guilty as sin for knowingly betraying nakama – as she had when she gave the Fishmen Nami's treasure map._

_She had followed Luffy as he watched the stupid marines, escorted by Gen, swagger through the village up to Nami's place. Jiru had informed Luffy that Nami was in trouble and minutes later the extremely pissed Nami had found them and tried to kill her; for betraying the location of Nami's secret stash of Beri._

_Luffy had intervened as Nami vented her rage. The navigator screamed her ultimatum of wanting them gone forever or dead; she didn't care which._

_Being left behind as Nami ran off, Luffy looked puzzled at Jiru as she explained why Nami was so angry at her. Jiru explained that she'd been forced – under threat of the villagers' deaths – to find the treasure map to the treasure Nami had been saving up to buy back her village from Arlong. The marines they had seen earlier had been on Arlong's payroll and had uncovered the secret location of the 100 million Beri that Nami had been saving to buy the village back from Arlong. Most likely, Arlong had told the marines where to go in order to steal Nami's money. Luffy was angry at her until had she wept with shame. She understood if Luffy didn't want her as nakama anymore; after telling him she knowingly betrayed a future nakama, making a choice of the lesser evil._

_Luffy then made her stand up straight and tall and told her if she apologized to Nami, he'd still let her be his nakama. So off they went to find Nami, who was stabbing her arm in pure, frustrated anger. Luffy stepped up to stop his navigator from hurting herself as Jiru gave the other woman her sincerest apology; not even trying to offer any excuses._

_Nami screamed and raged at them anyway. The two pirates stood there, as Nami battled her pride and asked Luffy for help. Luffy, giving Nami his hat for safe-keeping, answered he would help them._

_Luffy, Sanji, Zoro and Usoppu, all were ready to fight the terribly Arlong. Coming upon the dreaded gates of Arlong Park, Jiru nodded politely to Zoro's nakama as Luffy advanced on the gate with a vengeance. The men barely moved out of the way before Luffy had kicked down the closed doors._

_Luffy intended to set her and Nami free from Arlong's rule and fought until he won, declaring Nami and Jiru his nakama. She had offered her help by using her foresight and ended up 'saving' Luffy's life twice. Once when he had erred and ended up stuck in the sea; and the second time when the building had collapsed on him._

_It wasn't until the village's celebration of freedom that she had managed to tell Luffy and Nami that she still felt terrible for doing what she did. Nami punished her by making her pay back whatever the marines had stolen. The navigator meant it only in jest, but Jiru solemnly swore to hunt for treasure until that debt was paid. Luffy was concerned over the harsh punishment, until Jiru mentioned that she would have to stay with the crew until that debt was paid, and most definitely longer. Seeing it, reluctantly, in that light, Luffy welcomed his newest (and returning) nakama; Jiru and Nami._

_Having earned the respect of the Cocoyashi villagers, Jiru still wanted to get as far away from Arlong and the bad memories there. She had been inducted into the village and celebrated as such; given a villager's farewell as she set sail with Nami and Luffy._

XXX

"I accept your maiden's kiss." The blonde stranger's voice interrupted Jiru's reverie, making her snap her gaze away from Hachi and towards the voice's owner. What she saw was bizarre enough to make her laugh uncontrollably.

The man, Duval, was sitting on whatever it was he was riding – probably one of those stay-out-of-the-water-for-five-minutes flying fish – pointing a loving lover's gaze at Nami. Nami was sitting on the bow of the takiyoki ship; her hand poised mid-napkin-to-mouth wipe staring dumbly at the other, larger man.

"Oh, my…" Duval coughed as he looked away with a blush, pointing both index fingers at the navigator. "How embarrassing. That kiss you just blew me, I accept."

"I DID NO SUCH THING!" Nami snapped, being completely stunned. "I WAS JUST WIPING MY MOUTH, AND YOU JUST SHUT THE HELL UP, JIRU!"

Jiru, having seen the scene, burst out laughing – hard enough that she dropped her plate of takiyoki and fell to the floor; trying vainly to hold her guts in. She was vaguely aware of Duval talking more; but having found the whole scene utterly hilarious, couldn't do anything else but laugh herself first into tears, then into…

"Oh, god, Chopper, I think I'm going to be…" Jiru barely made it to the edge of the boat – which was now clear Duval and his crew of 'Whatever Fishy-Riders' – to hurl her recently eaten takiyoki back to where it originated from.

"Jiru!" Luffy's attention snapped on her as she continued being sick. "Chopper! Jiru's sick! Don't let her die!"

It was rather a pathetic scene: the merrily eating captain turning to vociferous concern as his treasure hunter was puking her guts overboard from laughing so hard; Jiru finding the effort to cease her puke-inducing laughter; Sanji and Chopper both jumping in to give instant relief to the troubled female; Usoppu looking away, trying to not get sick himself; Nami turning away coldly in complete annoyance; Brooke just watching in surprise and Hachi, Camie and Pappug all awash with guilt-induced concern.

Those who remained aboard the Sunny-Gou rushed over to see what was causing the distress; Robin tilted her head sideways and smiled her demure, small smile; Zoro just walked away shaking his head, and Franky gave the vomiting two-thumbs up for distance.

~If the rest of the night is going to be this miserable…~ The treasure hunter thought to herself as she finally got control of her bodily functions. ~I'll cross over the Redline in Hell's hand-basket.~


	18. Author's Notes

Author's notes:

Thank you to all who have been reading this story. Sorry for the late update, but it was a long chapter, and took some time to work on.

As for the series, I expect to write up until Ace's death and slightly after, following the story of Jiru, the Mugiwara Treasure hunter. I don't think I'll write ALL of what happens during the two-year time skip in the Manga, but briefly recap over it with the Reunion chapters; which will be a new story.

The descriptions and Japanese translations may be off, since I'm not looking up the terms as I write. Please bear with me here; and if I get something completely wrong, please tell me so that I can fix it.

Again, thanks for reading and faving this story! I hope it is fun and exciting to read!

NekoXyN

One Piece and its characters are copyrighted not to me, but to the wonderful Oda Eichiiro!

Long may One Piece run as a manga!


	19. Game Night

_Chapter 18: Game Night_

"Then I said to the samurai zombie: 'You can kiss my ass, you pervert, I'm going to defeat you, get my underwear back and rescue the skeleton in distress; now feel the wrath of my steel!'"

Camie squealed, furrowed her brows in terror and squeezed Pappug, who had an equally horrified look on his starfish-y face. Beside her, Hachi looked stunned, his fishy face puckered in concentration of her story.

It was evening on the Sunny-Gou, an hour after the Mugiwaras had all glutted themselves on octo-man made takiyoki. They all sat higgly-piggly on the torch lit grassy deck of the ship; more or less around a low set dining table. Sanji had made them all tea of different flavors; serving the takiyoki makers – namely Camie, Pappug and Hachi. Zoro was apart from the group, sleeping off his small ration of takiyoki. Robin was drinking her fifth cup of tea while Nami sat next her, pointedly ignoring the third female of the pirate crew; the girl currently telling the tall tale. The tale weaver, Jiru, had laughed obnoxiously at a situation Nami had been in earlier and ended up getting sick – gorging on takiyoki and then laughing your lungs out was a terrible idea. The navigator was currently miffed at her female friend.

It took fifteen minutes to convince her dramatically concerned captain that, no, she wasn't dying from food, and yes, she had peed herself from laughing so hard. Chopper, their doctor, and Usoppu, their sniper, diagnosed Jiru's sickness as the 'laugh-til-you-barf' disease. Nami didn't feel the least bit sorry for her friend.

Now, Chopper, Luffy and Usoppu were engrossed in the fabricated story; which was created on Usoppu's dare; as rules of the game they were playing indicated. The game: Truth, Lie or Dare, was the evening's entertainment. Nami had gone first and had dared Usoppu to tell, truthfully, the story of how he joined the Mugiwaras. It took some doing, as the sniper had to really use his brain to relate the encounter truthfully – even using the outrageous lies he had used in the initial meeting.

Then it was Jiru's turn, as Usoppu passed the torch to her; daring her to outdo him in fabricating a tall tale that would make their newest friends – Camie, Hachi and Pappug – wriggle in horror. It looked like she had succeeded; and so it was her turn to Truth, Lie or Dare someone.

"Ah, Jiru-san, that wasn't what happened." Brooke spoke up from his spot at the low-serving table on the grass. "I believe, ah, the situation was reversed; you were the mademoiselle in distress and I came to the rescue."

"Yea, so what." Jiru lifted her head from where it rested on Luffy's shoulder. "But the game's rules state I have to accept a Dare, a Lie or a Truth. I accepted a Dare, so Usoppu dared me to make up a horror story to scare Camie and Hachi. So I thought the story of how you fought Ryuuma would be scary if I swapped the roles."

The game's other rules stated that the person whose turn it was, had to choose either a Dare, a Lie, or a Truth, then the person doing the asking would try and make up some insane Dare/Lie/Truth scenario and out-psych the other person. If the person refused to do the Dare/Lie/Truth, the person would lose and be out of the game. Eventually, it would get down to two people, and the person who out-psyched the other – make the other person refuse to do the Dare/Lie/Truth – would be the winner.

The game was the creation of Usoppu; something the sniper had made up before they all crossed into the Grand Line. It had history also, having started out as frivolous and stupid; before the competitive natures of some of the crew (Nami, Usoppu, Zoro, Sanji) turned it into a damn serious game. Usoppu was currently the ruling champion of it; having out-played everyone. His record: 101 wins - 14 losses. Vivi had once won against him; having forced him to flub on a Truth.

"Ah, yes, I forgot." The skeleton chuckled; he had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts as the younger female had re-told the Thriller Bark story of how Ryuuma, himself and her met for the last time. He wasn't accustomed to Jiru telling lies. "I was just thinking about the real thing, that's all. My apologies, Jiru-san."

"Shishishishishi." Luffy wrapped his arms around the woman who was leaning on his left side. Jiru nodded and shifted her left foot; allowing a different position so the blood could circulate.

"I know that Brooke fought the zombie samurai to rescue Jiru and her panties…" Here Jiru lightly tapped her captain for talking about her panties. "But hearing Jiru-chan tell the story with her saving Brooke and his panties is just too hilarious! Imagining Jiru fighting the zombie-samurai with a sword is exciting!"

The rest of the crew all shook their heads at Luffy's sense of humor as Nami spoke up in Jiru's defense.

"Luffy, you idiot!" the navigator finally ended her cold-shouldering on Jiru and sighed. "How can you possibly think that Jiru can fight with a sword?"

"Hhmm…" Luffy tilted his head back, looking thoughtful. "I don't know, I just find it funny." He laughed again as he received glares from his nakama.

"Oi, you baka! I'd never let Jiru-chwan pick up a sword, let alone fight a zombie samurai!" Sanji's annoyed voice jumped into the fray, defending a woman's dignity. "How stupid can you be?"

"Sanji, Luffy is right; picturing Jiru swinging a sword around is pretty funny." Usoppu laughed with Chopper.

"She'd be a female Zoro!" Chopper giggled.

"…" Nami grunted and dropped a disbelieving face into her hands.

"…" Usoppu tilted his head sideways, mentally picturing Jiru wearing a set of Zoro clothes.

"…" Franky looked plaintively at the reindeer. Next to him, Robin chuckled softly.

"…" Sanji blew out a puff of his cigarette smoke.

"Say what?" Jiru blinked at Usoppu/Chopper-logic.

"What!" Chopper now looked nervous and shy. "I didn't mean it, you assholes!" the young reindeer got up and promptly hid behind Usoppu, looking at all of them.

"GAAAAH!" Sanji broke the mild tense scene and ran his hands through his blonde hair in upset frustration. "That image it SOO wrong!" The cigarette dropped from his mouth as he continued to freak out over whatever perverted-twisted image his mind was coming up with.

"Oy, shit-cook, shut the hell up!" Zoro's baritone voice was heard. "You're too loud."

Luffy and Jiru turned to the sleeping swordsman and smiled. The green-haired male had one eye open and glaring nastily at the cook.

"EEEEE! Zoro-face!" Jiru mock squealed as she looked at Zoro's face. "I don't wanna be another Zoro!" The setting sun – having just gone below the horizon line – set the orange-indigo shadows on the marimo's face twisting and fierce. "It's so scary!"

Burying her own face on Luffy's shoulder; she shook with mild laughter; having teased the poor swordsman again.

"What the hell!" Zoro now had both his eyes open in annoyance. "What is your problem, woman?"

"Your face!" Jiru threw back.

"BWHAHAHAHAHAAH!" Sanji burst out with laughter; causing him to fall on his back on the grassy deck. This sent Usoppu, Chopper and Luffy into fits of laughter also, as the treasure hunter poked fun at the gruff and serious swordsman.

Across the table, Hachi, Camie and Pappug looked at each other in social confusion. The ocean-dwelling beings were confused and lost at the pirates' exchange and it showed.

"Don't mind them, Mermaid-chan." Robin's voice saved the day. "They're all like this at times."

"You can say that twice more, Robin-san." Nami's agitated voice followed up. "You'd think that Jiru would be the more mature person among them, but she really isn't."

"Hey! I resent that remark, Nami-san. I said I was sorry for laughing at you earlier, seriously!" Jiru's voice wove through the verbal laughter and squabbling.

"Sure you did, I accepted." The orange-haired navigator smiled back in the dying light.

"EEEKKK! Nami-face!" Jiru mock squealed again flinging her arms around Luffy's shoulders. "Soo scar-" Nami shot Jiru a death glare; making the female's voice catch as she changed her word mid-word. "…ily pretty!"

"Why, thank you, Jiru. That was very nice of you to compliment me!" Nami's face turned from demonic to angelic; fangs of death to beatific smile.

"Oy, Chibi-Sis, its still your turn! Don't try to forget about the game!" Franky's voice cut through the chattering and focused the rest back to the game.

"Right." Jiru stopped making faces at Nami and leaned back on Luffy. "My turn, right. Now…who to pick…Truth, Lie or Dare."

Building up the tension as she let her lagoon-green eyes rest on each person for a long series of seconds – she had Sanji and Usoppu wriggling in excitement for her to pick them, had Chopper frantically finding a place to hide so she wouldn't chose him and had Pappug hiding behind Hachi so he wouldn't be picked – Jiru ended up choosing Brooke.

"Ok, Brooke-san; Truth, Lie or Dare." She said after a minute.

"Ah. Oh, what to chose. I choose to answer a Truth!" the Skeleton hmm-ed and haa-ed over his decision and clapped his bony hand into his other.

"Truth, hhm ok…" Again, Jiru took her time in thinking of a question to ask the elderly skeleton. "Got it!"

"Ask it, Jiru, I wanna know Brooke's answer, since he has to answer truthfully!" Usoppu chattered in excitement.

"Usopp~U, hush, let her ask the question first, then you can get excited." Luffy chided his best friend lightly, as the teen-aged pirate looked down at Jiru's patient face.

"I hope it's a SUUUUP~A question, right, Chibi-Sis?" Franky inserted his voice.

"GAAAH, LET ME ASK BROOKE THE QUESTION!" Jiru hissed through her teeth at the interruptions.

"Oy, just go ahead and ask already, Chibi." Zoro needled the treasure hunter back and chuckled when she flipped him the finger.

"BROOKE!" Jiru's voice got louder. "WHO IS THE MOST FAMOUS PERSON YOU'VE MET?"

"The Silver Queen." The skeleton answered, making everyone – including Hachi – but Jiru gasp in awe.

"THE SILVER QUEEN!" The Mugiwaras and Fishman exclaimed.


	20. Silver & Rainbows

_Chapter 19: Silver & Rainbows_

"You've met the Silver Queen!" Luffy shouted in excitement; leaned forward in glee. "The Pirate Queen to the Pirate King!"

"No, way! I don't believe that." Sanji looked surprised.

"What did she look like, was she SUPER Pretty!" Franky leaned forward, his face lit with shock.

"Hm, you are old enough to have met her, aren't you, Musician-san?" Robin's voice sounded thoughtful.

"Oh wow, you met the Silver Queen; that is so awesome!" Usoppu banged the table; covering his leaking eyes with the other hand. "Did you manage to see her face!"

"Wow!" Chopper's face, like Franky's, was alight with awe.

"Did she give you anything like a treasure map or something!" Nami had that gold-lusting look in her eyes.

The astonished reactions of the pirates threw the Truth-asker for a loop. Jiru had never heard of such a name before.

"The Silver Queen?" the Treasure hunter looked around at her friends, at a loss of knowledge. "Who's that?"

"You've never heard of the Silver Queen? Nyuu~" Hachi finally spoke up; the octo-man's face mirrored the pirates, and was awed.

"No, I…I haven't heard of the Silver Queen."

"Well, that's a first, the Chibi isn't as all-smart as she leads us to believe." Zoro's voice needled her again.

"SHUT UP, MARIMO-JERK. Tell me what you're all excited about!" Jiru yelled back at him, but calmed down as Luffy hugged her to him.

"Relax, Ji-chan." He chuckled. "Brooke surprised us with his answer."

"Yohohohohohohohoho!" The skeleton laughed in mirth. "I am serious when that is the truth!"

"WHO IS THE SILVER QUEEN!" Jiru asked again, her curiosity burning.

"Ah, you truly haven't heard of the Silver Queen, have you, Miss-Jiru?" Brooke asked her.

"No, I haven't…now somebody PLEASE-"

"Ok, relax, Jiru." Nami spoke. "The Silver Queen is just as famous as Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King. You know about him, right?"

"Yea, the pirate who died after he became the Pirate King decades ago."

"Right." Nami continued. "Well, the Silver Queen was his rival, a pirate woman that helped him amass his fortune and hide it."

"So the Silver Queen was the Pirate Queen?" the smaller female inquired further, her body growing tense; as if a secret was going to be revealed.

"Something like that." The navigator nodded. "Although they weren't romantically involved or even on the same crew, they were labeled as the Pirate King and Queen. The marines hated them both."

"Yea, and the Silver Queen was a wily one. She kept taunting the Marines whenever they thought they finally cornered her for capture." Usoppu jumped into the conversation. "They say she knew what would happen and always escape."

"Uh, ok…sounds nice and all, but I don't understand how that would make her be the Pirate Queen." Jiru sounded dubious. "Wouldn't the marines have killed all of the Pirate King's friends back then?"

"They may have." Franky joined in. "But when the marines executed the Pirate King, it was the Silver Queen who showed up and announced she would bury his body somewhere in the New World, the second half of the Grand Line. The Marines believed the Silver Queen may have buried him on Raftel, with his fortune."

"Ouch, I bet they hated her for that." Jiru, unconsciously sat up a little straighter, listening closely. "Usoppu-kun asked about her face, was something wrong about her face?"

"No, not really. You see, the Silver Queen's identity and past was shrouded in mystery: nobody knows where she came from or what she looks like. She often wore a mask made of silver." Franky parted with his knowledge. "After she took the Pirate King's body, she was never seen or heard from again. Never."

"Wow, that's creepy." Jiru relaxed subconsciously; a deep dark secret still running in her head. "She…she must be old now, right? Twenty years older?"

"That's right, if she's even alive." Sanji nodded, bringing out another cigarette and lighting white little romantic hearts danced around his face. "I believe the Silver Queen is the most beautiful woman ever; because she, in my heart, is still alive!"

"Oh, really, Sanji?" Nami glared at the mooning cook.

"Sanji-chin, you're so funny!" Camie tittered at the blonde cook. "She would be too old for you!"

"Ne-next to my lovely Nami-swan and Camie-cwhan of couuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurse!" he quickly corrected himself and gave the two females affectionate looks.

"Hai!" Pappug jumped off Camie's lap and lifted one of his starfish-y appendages. "I've heard that the Silver Queen had a baby and that the kid was stolen by pirates."

The Mugiwaras all tensed, but only for a moment, before relaxing. The mention of the word 'baby' brought back terrible memories for all. The mood passed as Nami laughed, setting it right again.

"That's awful; but the rumor I heard was she gave the baby to the Whitebeard Pirates to raise as their own."

"Nyuu!" Hachi looked thoughtful. "You could be right, Nami-san, but I don't know. They are just rumors. If either of them are alive; the kid would be twenty years old or something, Nyuu~"

XXX

Jiru listened to the conversation about the Silver Queen with her nerves wound tighter than coiled wire. She had, unknowingly, thrust herself into extremely dangerous waters. She knew exactly who the Silver Queen and her child were. It was none other than herself and the child that she and Ace had conceived in Alabasta's desert.

It had been a huge surprise to find out she had been with child. The mild-going treasure hunter had known it and felt it – and cursed her luck. She had really gone out on a limb and allowed Luffy's brother, Portgas D. Ace, to make her feel good – all night long. It shouldn't have been that much of a surprise to find herself in that condition, considering how many times she and Ace 'safely' did it. By the time they departed Alabasta a month later – sadly leaving princess Vivi behind – Jiru knew for certain of her condition.

She had been attempting to bring herself to tell Luffy when she had reached one of her personal goals: to find and claim the missing shard of her celestial jewel. It was in some nameless port that the pirates had run into a phenomenon known as the Rainbow Fog; a patch of distorted ocean that bent the Rules of Time. Had the Mugiwaras never got mixed up with the greedy, treasure-hording bullies in that town, she would have missed sensing her jewel shard completely and events would have been completely different. (She would have experienced Jaya, Skypiea and the Davy Back Games.)

Certain greedy marine-pirates, having experienced the phenomenon decades before, knew all about the Rainbow Fog and the lost treasures within. They opted to wait; and since there had been innocent victims involved – lost childhood friends of some old townsman – others waited too; researching and building a way to escape the Fog.

As it was, the Mugiwaras became stuck in the timeless patch of ocean fog; and refused to be trapped there forever. It was completely astonishing to experience that adventure; the adventure of rescue and escape. With the aid of a very tall tower an Old Man had built, the Rainbow Fog's mysterious shell was cracked and the treasure within, looted.

However, the greedy pirates had the upper hand and, after stealing all the Fog's treasure, trapped the Mugiwaras within the Fog by blowing up the tower-made pathway.

Not knowing any other way to expel the pirates and children from the distorted space, Jiru – having sensed her jewel shard was within the Fog's timeless space the moment she became trapped – found her lost jewel shard, reuniting it with the incomplete jewel housed within the broach Luffy took back from Arlong.

It had been a painful, heart breaking choice, but by using that backlash of power, she would send the entrapped parties two different ways, freeing them from the Fog's grip. The Mugiwaras would be sent flying back to the same port, same day; while she and the lost childhood friends of the Old Man would be sent the opposite way, thirty years into the past – the day that the young children became trapped in the Fog.

Having not had the chance to say her farewells or to explain her choice of leaving suddenly to Luffy and the others, Jiru found herself in the past; where none of her friends were born yet! It was to that extent, that she remained with the now-free and future-knowing children. Time was an extremely tricky thing; she managed to teach the children. The Mugiwara Treasure Hunter, also, knew the future and swore them all to a code of important secrecy: using only their knowledge to somehow set themselves up to meet with the Mugiwaras again in the future – a future meeting that would happen after she set the Mugiwara Pirates free.

Setting the children up within a branch of the Marines, Jiru had stayed with them until they were old enough to not need her. Parting ways after renewing their promises – and leaving a hand-written letter containing a clue of her fate for the Mugiwaras to read in the future – the Treasure Hunter traveled the world; keeping a low-profile. She had yet to physical touch the more completed jewel in the broach, as the act would tear her from this dimension and into another, sending her along her shard-finding journey.

However, things didn't allow her to keep a low profile when she gave birth to her and Ace's child: a boy. It was insanity as she somehow found herself right in the middle of a clash between two powerful pirates: Gol D. Roger and Edward Newgate, aka Whitebeard.

Being stunned into inaction upon meeting the living legend and a younger Whitebeard, Jiru was unable to defend herself or her newly born boy as the two pirates came to an agreement: one pirate would take the mother and the other would take the child.

These series of events certainly weren't in Jiru's future-knowledge, and she worried about screwing with Time's flow. She certainly voiced her concern loud enough to Roger, as the future Pirate King ended up choosing her; leaving the squalling baby to Whitebeard. Whitebeard was decent enough to allow her to name the child before leaving. She had given the boy the name: Puma D. Trace, not knowing what else to say.

Years later, having been stuck with Roger, Jiru managed to build enough respect and strength to challenge Roger and become his rival. Hiding her aging face, she grew to interact with younger versions of people she knew from the future: Garp, 'Dark King' Silver Raleigh, Doctor Crocus, Red-Haired Shanks, Buggy and others.

In one final adventure, she challenged Roger in his last adventure before his inevitable end. She knew he was dying. Sailing with him on the last voyage, she watched quietly as he amassed all his wealth, fortune, power and fame on one island.

She had refused to witness Roger's execution, knowing the time of her dimensional departure was near. After failing to locate her son – the boy had been renamed by Whitebeard and ate a powerful, rare bird-model Akuma no Mi – she granted Roger's last request to her: to take his body and bury someplace wild – someplace where the Marines would never find it. She had been asked to do so in the flashiest way she could come up with; Roger's way of challenging her one last time.

She met Roger's challenge and managed to take his body, freshly dead, out from the Marine's eyes and bury it on a secret place on Raftel, the island where she had helped Roger amass his fortune. Having been nearly caught by Garp; whom had studied the aged pirate woman the world had dubbed 'The Silver Queen'; and knew where she would be, Jiru, aged sixty-four, finally left the Vearth Dimension behind by touching her broken jewel.

XXX

Author's Note:

If you don't like this chapter; tough. It came out from rough ideas; and I find it fun. You say Ace shouldn't have a son? This is a fanfiction, read it and enjoy. I pondered long and used different ideas for the son of Ace, and ended up using a real OP character for Ace's son. I didn't outright give the new name for Ace's son, but put clues instead, hoping it would be enough for avid One Piece fans to pick up and connect the dots.

Yes, enjoy the Time twist, and be sure to watch the OP episodes of 139-143 to see the Rainbow Mist (Fog) references.


	21. Shaboady Grove

_Chapter 20: Shaboady Grove_

"Wakey, wakey."

The sleeping treasure hunter did not move. The bed was nice and warm – she didn't feel like moving out of it quite yet. But whoever was trying to wake her, prodded her in the side: her one most ticklish place. She flinched like a zapped fish.

"Shishishishishishishi." A masculine voice laughed. She knew that laugh from anywhere. The woman moaned audibly and scooted away from her annoying captain. He followed. "Jiruuuuuuuuuuu, I'll poke yooooou again."

"Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooo." Her sleepy answer came, as she plopped a pillow over her head. "Hnnnooooo."

"It's morning."

"…" The woman moaned again and curled up under the blankets.

"Oi, Luffy, you leave her alone. We're not ready for her to wake up." Usoppu's soft voice was heard. The way that the sniper spoke his words threw a red flag of warning in her sleep-hazed mind.

"Usoppuuuuuuu." Luffy's whiny voice answered back. "Why do we have to prank her like this?"

"She's the one that decided to sleep in the men's dorm, Luffy." Zoro's cranky voice came. "I'm only standing here like this for ten more damned seconds, Usoppu; then I'm leaving."

"I wanna test my theory, Zoro. Now is the perfect time to do it."

"I have the medical supplies ready, Usoppu!" Chopper's excited voice betrayed the fact SOMETHING was going to happen. The pillow-covered woman heard all this and dreaded opening her eyes.

"Oh god, I don't wanna get up: I don't wanna know…" The waking female uncurled her body and slowly removed the pillow from her head anyway. Rolling onto her back and looking up into her captain's dark eyes, she smiled lazily and stretched her limbs – something she always did upon waking. It was a good sign that her left foot only ached when moved.

"Good morning, Jiru-chan." Luffy sat on the side of the upper-level one-person bunk and grinned. "It's about time you woke up; you're the last to wake up."

"I am?"

"Yup. Look." Luffy pointed behind him and bit his lip in attempts to keep himself from laughing.

"Do I even wanna kno-" She sat up in the bed and gasped. Her hands flew to her face as it turned red.

In front of the bunk stood Zoro, wearing nothing but a white towel; which was draped over his shoulder. Zoro, being Zoro, was built like an Adonis; his muscles rippling under his scarred skin. He must have already worked out for the morning; because his skin was glistening with sweat. His hair was mused up and careless. Wearing a body that was honed for a swordsman's use, Zoro looked up at her with hot eyes and smirked. Her eyes trailed down from his chest scar to his torso and the fire in her belly roared into existence. A trickle of blood dribbled through her fingers in consequence of the sight.

"HA! I knew it!" Usoppu exclaimed in triumph. "It happens to women too."

The collector gasped again and tossed herself back down on the bed, hiding her face as they all laughed at her expense. The door slammed open and Sanji came stomping in.

"Hey, you idiots, you leave her to slee-." The cook stopped mid-word and twitched. "Oh THAT IS SO WRONG! SHITTY Swordsman; PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"

"Sanji, it worked! Hurry up and do it too, I bet we could have her in need of a blood transfusion!" Usoppu just wouldn't let the prank lie; as the sniper spoke to the cook. "If she sees you like that, I bet she'd pass out!"

"Neee, but I don't want Jiru-chan to pass out." Luffy stopped laughing and sounded concerned.

"I AM not going to do that to a woman, you perverted idiot!" Sanji's voice was raw with anger. "Just what did you do!"

"Showed her a naked Zoro." Chopper answered.

"WHAT!" The cook's anger upped itself to fury. "I'm going to kill you, Shitty-Marimo!"

"Tch, just relax, shit-cook." Zoro's amused voice aimed itself at his rival as he put his pants on. "It's nothing she hasn't seen before."

"ZORO!" In the bunk, the embarrassed female yelped loudly and threw the pillow back over her head. "Don't tell them THAT!"

"Chopper! Quick, Jiru has a bloody nose." Luffy turned away from his two fighting nakama and tore the pillow off the girl's head and caught her face in his hands.

"Coming, Luffy-san!" Chopper jumped into action, turning into his Human-point mode to reach up to his new patient. Usoppu was on the floor, holding his side as he became lost in a bout of merry laughter. Above the floored sniper, the cook and now-half-dressed swordsman were busy throwing hate-glares at each other.

"Luffy, I'm going to kill your best friend, and then kick his ass." Jiru's face was hot as her captain held it still for Chopper to attend to. The doctor pulled out tissues for her waning nosebleed and gently placed them over her nose.

"Awh, don't kill Usoppu-san, Jiru, he didn't mean anything." Luffy frowned and scooted back so Chopper could tend to her. "He thought it would be funny."

"It was just a figure of speech, Luffy; I wasn't really going to kill him. Thanks Chopper." She sighed and tried to cool herself down. "I guess that's what I get for falling asleep in your lap."

She pointedly closed her eyes as Chopper sat her up and leaned her forward, allowing the blood to drain properly. It was a widely false-skewed concept that nose-bleeders had to lean back to stop the flow; the stomach doesn't digest blood, so why lean back and let the blood drain down the throat?

The Golden Thief thought back to last night, and sighed. She had fallen asleep a few turns after Brooke and his Silver Queen answer. The rest of the evening had been a blur, before she fell fully asleep after somebody moved her from the grassy deck to a bed.

"Oh, that's right, the game. Who won?" Jiru asked through the tissue.

"Not telling." Luffy looked at her with a straight face.

"Huh? Why not?"

"You have to kiss me to find out." Luffy's lips twitched with a smile.

"Say what!" Jiru stared at her captain's uncharacteristic flirting. "You are weird, Luffy."

"I am not!" He looked offended.

"Ok, fine." Jiru leaned forward and kissed her captain lightly on the cheek. Beside her, Chopper gasped in surprise, and below, the other three males grew quiet. Breaking the kiss, and sitting back, she smiled brightly and looked at Luffy.

"Well? Tell me, who won?"

"Usoppu." The captain smiled finally.

"I knew it."

"You idiot!" Sanji finally spoke. "Luffy just blackmailed a woman!"

"Sanji…" Jiru looked down at the irate cook.

"Yeeeeeeees, Jiru-swan!" Sanji fell into his love-sick mode.

"Is my breakfast ready?"

"!" He answered.

"Good. Now everybody but Chopper…GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

XXX

"So what's the plan once we get to the Shabody Grove, huh, Nami-chan?" Jiru sat on the upper railing of the Sunny-gou, slowly rotating her newly unwrapped left foot around. Doctor Chopper had declared her foot mended enough to begin exercising it.

It was an hour after she had finally exited her sleeping spot in the men's dorm. Nami and the rest of the crew had found out what happened in the room and lightly teased her about it. Luffy was in a good mood since she had kissed him on the cheek, and was scampering about with, Usoppu, Brooke, Pappug and Camie on the lower deck of the ship. Beside the treasure hunter, the Octo-fishman and the Navigator stood talking about the plan of action. It was a funny thing to see the two on speaking terms. Jiru knew Nami had been psychologically and physically abused by Arlong, and held hatred for the fishman that served under the shark-bully.

"I guess we go look for the ship-coater that Hachi spoke of last night." Nami turned to the collector and gave a vulpine smile. "But you wouldn't know that now, would, you, Lover-girl."

"NAMI!" Jiru sounded embarrassed and indignant. "I didn't CHOOSE to sleep in Luffy's bunk, he put he there."

"Suuure, I believe you." The navigator purred back. "Did your captain kiss you good-night?"

"Hay, SANJI-san!" Luffy jumped up to hang off the railing Hachi, Nami and Jiru were leaning against. "WE'RE HUNNNNNNNGRY!" the captain's voice echoed across the deck into the galley.

"Idiot!" Sanji's response came with him out of the galley. "You just ate your second meal with Jiru-chwan!"

"Luffy, what if I go help Sanji-kun make bento boxes for when we get to Shaboady Grove?"

"YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!" Luffy and Sanji both looked at the treasure hunter with love in their eyes.

"Go make your food! I love eating your cooking!" Luffy laughed further.

"Are you sure you wanna help me, Jiru-chwan?" Sanji looked at the woman affectionately. "It'll be a big job to fill the idiot's stomach for bento boxes."

"I am up for the challenge; we have a few minutes before we get there, right, Nami-chwan?"

"Ugh." Nami face-palmed herself as her friend grinned hugely at them. "Will you two ever stop thinking about food?"

"Nope." Luffy and Jiru answered together.

"What else is new?" Nami muttered. Beside her, the octo-fishman looked surprised.

XXX

An hour later, Sanji and Jiru exited the galley, carrying the horde of bento boxes they filled. Luffy jumped them both, wrapping his arms around the woman's waist to hang joyously. He had waited the whole time by the galley door. He, like the others that mooched food off the free-spirited treasure hunter, knew better than to interrupt the woman while she helped Sanji cook food. She had the tendency to be very violent when somebody messed with her ingredients.

"You idiot, get off her." Sanji planted his foot in Luffy's rubbery face and tried to push the pirate off his floating Su-Chef.

"Luffy you need to wai-." Jiru sighed, a soft smile of amusement on her lips.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I wanna eat a box now!" Luffy looked up at her and made puppy-eyes. "Pleeeeease!"

"Why is it whenever I tell YOU no; you ignore the word like it was never said?" the dark-haired collector chuckled. "But you use the same word so often?"

"I'm hungry!" Luffy demand now, reaching for the green box in the woman's hands.

"NO! This is my box! It has chocolate toppings and shrimp-giri."

"Yummy!" Luffy stretched his arm to grab the box. The treasure hunter floated away from the deck to keep the box away from her captain.

"I'm serious! THIS IS MY BOX!"

The deck of the Sunny-gou was clear and sunny, the grass having sucked up or burned off the night-time dew that accumulated. Luffy clung to the aura-pad that the woman was sitting on, and moved off the higher level of deck. He hung off like a person clinging for dear life over lava.

"Luffy, what are you doing up there?" Usoppu asked from below. "Are you trying to eat Jiru-san's food again?"

"Usoppu!" Luffy laughed. "She made bento!"

"Jiru-Bento!" the sniper's face lit up. It was argued that Jiru-made bento was possibly better than Sanji-made bento. Jiru used outrageous ingredients that made the bento rice – a permanent feature in the seven-part box – burn your tongue with sweet-spiciness.

"I want some!" The sniper turned to the steps in order to grab a box of bento.

"Holy CRAP! Those are big!" Jiru was about to stop Usoppu from grabbing a bento box when she ceased her attention on deck and looked out over the water. She tensed slightly. One by one, the crew followed her gaze. Luffy followed the treasure-hunter's gaze, and, just as Jiru, he immediately went on full alert.

"Whoa!" he cried.

"What the…?" Franky muttered.

"So pretty…!" Nami whispered.

"What is that?" Usoppu questioned.

"Something's flying up there." Sanji said, finally finished tying the bento boxes in cloth; sectioning them off for those who would disembark on Shaboady Grove.

"Oh, my!" Brooke gasped in amazement.

"It's like a dream…" Robin commented, joining the crew on the upper deck.

"WOW!" Chopper breathed.

"Bubbles?" Zoro mumbled.

Up ahead, it was revealed that the _Thousand Sunny_ had arrived at a huge, forest-like island. The trees had grey and white stripes with numbers on them, and their roots grew into the ocean beneath them. What caught the pirates' attention most; however, were the bubbles that were rising into the air.

"Welcome to the Sabaody Archipelago!" Pappug declared.

"A-are those soap bubbles?" Usoppu asked. "What's going on? They keep drifting up, one after another! Are they coming from the island?"

"Who's blowing them?" Luffy asked, having released the air-pad and dropped on the upper deck.

"No one." Camie answered, joining the higher ground to see the sight. "The island makes them."

"The island?" Usoppu repeated, questioningly.

"How so?" Jiru inquired.

"Excuse for interrupting." Robin toned it. "But Nami, what does the Log Pose say?"

"Oh, yeah!" the navigator said in realization as she looked down at the Log Pose. "Right now, the needle is still pointing to Fishman Island. Wait…Camie! Will this island reset the log?"

"Oh, not at all." Hachi reassured. "The Shabody Archipelago is really just one huge clump of trees! It doesn't have a magnetic force."

"It's not an island?" Jiru sounded surprised.

"You do know what mangroves are, don't you?" the octoman asked the woman.

"Yeah." She answered. "Mangroves are trees with roots above or below the water, depending on the tide, am I right?"

"Exactly!" Hachi said. "Here, the roots are always above water! The Shabaody Archipelago is a collection of the world's largest mangroves: the Yarukiman Mangroves."

"The Yarukiman Mangroves?" Luffy repeated. "Sounds cool! Let's goooo, Jiru!"

"Wait!" Hachi said. "There's more! There are a total of seventy-nine trees. Each tree has a town or some facilities. There are also seventy-nine 'islands', altogether, and they all make up the Shabaody Archipelago! The grove right in front of us is Grove 44, the private entrance, so we should dock further back."

"Alright then, let's GOOOO!" Luffy repeated himself.


	22. Into the Bubbles

_Chapter 21: Into the Bubbles_

When they finally dropped anchor, the treasure hunter called Luffy to a race and sped off the ship, floating above the ground as her captain laughed and followed her. The rest of the crew stepped foot and wondered in awe as they witnessed the creation of the soap-like bubbles. Jiru, Chopper, Robin, Luffy and Usoppu all watched as the bubbles simply came out of the ground. Commenting on how similar the bubbles were to Jiru's own air-like powers, Luffy managed to jump on a soap bubble; laughing.

Following Luffy as he moved upward, bouncing on bubble to bubble, the treasure hunter was able to view more of the island and spot the huge Ferris-wheel. Luffy spotted the ride as well and went higher before falling. Fortunately, Jiru was close enough to catch Luffy when his highest-reaching bubble suddenly popped. Jiru pondered this as they descended to join the rest of the crew on ground.

The results of her descending caused an argument with Usoppu, as he approached her and commented on how nice her panties looked from below – as her foot injury made wearing shorts or pants difficult – a skirt was what she currently wore. As it was, the two barely heard the dialog Hachi gave about ship-coating mechanics and not-opposing the Tenryuubito.

After leaving the ship in Luffy's group – which consisted of Brooke, Hachi, Papagg, Camie, Robin, Chopper and Nami; Jiru remain seated on her air-pad, via doctor Chopper's orders. She didn't mind, however, as the Mugiwaras listened to more of Hachi's warnings about the lawless areas of Shaboady Groves.

The group of island-like trees had all sorts of people; including more pirates, marines, bounty hunters and kidnappers. Robin teased the floating treasure-hunter about being prime kidnapping material and laughed as Jiru struggled with an appropriate retort against the Archeologist. Nami joined in, mentioning the fact that Jiru has been captured in nearly every one of their adventures.

Jiru just laughed the comment off, saying, even though it was true, she had held her own and always returned in safety. Turning to Luffy, her comments about not worrying about her was ignored as her captain was playing – once again – with the constant bubbles that not only were part of the living background, but produced the 'white-noise' that started once they entered the island domain.

As such, it was a surprise to find Luffy inside the bubble; which inspired Jiru to change her own air-pad into a bubble. So it was a thrill to see the bubble-based 'bicycle' invention that moved the bubbles around; turning the soapy spheres into transportation. After hearing Luffy say he wanted to buy one, the others told him no and tried to explain why. The Straw-Hat pouted and pointed out that buying one for Jiru's new 'bubble' pad would work.

After pondering Luffy's point of view, and commenting that Franky might be able to make one, the group split up. Sticking with Luffy and others, Jiru allowed her own air-bubble to dissipate and sit on the Bon-Chari-mobile as Nami and Robin went shopping. It was an excellent choice, as Luffy's group was more entertaining; buying trinkets and food – Chopper and Brooke managed to convince Jiru to stay on the back of the larger bubble-wagon as they bought a soap-sphere hat and trinkets for the immobile treasure-hunter.

Thanking Chopper twice was enough to earn her the name of idiot. The hunter laughed as the overly-worried doctor relaxed enough to be his usual self. Riding on Hachi's bubble-bus next to Camie, the two females enjoyed themselves as the Octo-man raced Luffy in the Bon-Charis. The enjoyment lasted not long enough as the group came upon a doomed, desperate man. The collared man was insane, calling for somebody to remove the thing around his neck.

The enslaved 'pirate's' begging and hopeless tone of voice disturbed Jiru enough to move her to act; Hachi held her back, asking her to ignore the situation. With fists clenched in barely masked raged, she, Luffy and the others watched in horror as the collar around the man's neck exploded. The Golden Thief's attention was narrowed down to the horror of the scene in front of her. Hachi snapped her out of it, asking her to get off the bus; as he asked Luffy the same thing.

Not really understanding what was going to happen next, Jiru leaned on Luffy's shoulder as the pre-mentioned Tenryuubito finally appeared; precluded by their piss-spouting dog. Hachi made her lower her head as the disgusting humans made their entrance; kicking the fatally wounded man. Both she and Luffy stared as the male commented on how useless the fool was to escape. Then both her and her captain leapt into action after the 'Tenryuubito' shot the man. Fortunately Hachi and Brooke held them both back as the scene continued to unfold in untold horror. They couldn't do anything against the monsters; the Tenryuubito.

Later, after the group had distanced themselves from the scene, Hachi explained the consequences of striking a Tenryuubito – a swift response from the nearby Marine head-quarters. Voicing her ultimate disgust of the Tenryuubito and being rule-bound into inaction, Jiru vowed to never again to be within ten meters of the pigs; otherwise she wouldn't be able to restrain herself. Luffy agreed with her.

Suddenly, she alerted the group of incoming trouble, making them to move on. Ten minutes later, the fighting trio: Chopper, Brooke and Luffy, complained about the number of bounty hunters in the area. Behind confined to the sidelines; Jiru was still on alert when Hachi explained how the differently numbered areas of the groves functioned. Clinging to Camie in mock-fright, Jiru groaned when the Octo-man told them they were currently in the thick of a bounty-hunter area.

Finally, Hachi led them, safely, to Grove 13; which had been their destination: a place to start looking for the ship-coater that had started this adventure. Entering the bar called 'Rip-Off' the Mugiwaras met Shakky. After settling in, swapping stories and breaking the ice; Luffy, Brooke, Chopper, Jiru, Camie, Papagg and Hachi explained their mission: to find Raleigh and have him coat their ship so they could sail to Fishman Island.

When Shakky offered Chopper his favorite food: cotton candy and Jiru hers (mint-chocolate and shrimp), Luffy asked Shakky how she knew his nakama's favorite foods. Shakky informed them she had her sources. Then, asking Luffy how true the Enies Lobby incident was, the conversation managed to swing to Garp to Raleigh and then amusement parks. Luffy, of course, became excited at the prospect of looking for somebody in the Amusement Park. However, Shakky warned them that with the Mugiwaras in the vicinity, there were 12 Supernova Rookies on the island – all pirates with bounties over the 100 million Beri mark.

This bit of information caught Jiru's interest as she knew her bounty was 113 Million beri. Upon seeing her first ever 'Wanted-Poster' back on Water 7, the high bounty had surprised even Luffy, making him congratulate her on gaining such a price. After bashfully saying it wasn't much, the Golden Thief agreed with Shakky's comments on how powerful information was, she took out her self-made DF Users book to take notes on the other nine high-headed bounties. Three were accounted for: Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro and herself: Jiru, the Golden Thief.

When jotting down the valuable information, a certain name caught her interest and made her sneeze: Trafalgar Law. Luffy asked her what was wrong, and Jiru muttered something about funny names – it was probably just somebody talking about her elsewhere.

When all was said and done, Luffy and his group were ready to search the Shaboady Park for Raleigh.

However, as they sat talking to Shakky in the bar, the Mugiwaras' earlier encounters with the bounty hunters produced consequences; a few of the hoodlums managed to figure out that Camie was a mermaid, which were like diamonds on the market. Telling another group of hunters, the doom was imminent when the kidnapping group decided to act on the information and capture Camie. The greedy men began plotting.

XXX

Meanwhile, Luffy and his group arrived at the Sabaody Park, in elation. Once Luffy picked the first ride; it was all over for the group's sanity. Having a blast despite her healing ankle, Jiru laughed so much she puked; and then kept on laughing as the good times rolled. The normally sharp-tuned hunter let her awareness slip as she went on ride after ride and finally got a chance to tell Camie and Luffy this was the most fun she had since re-joining the Mugiwaras. Luffy was happy to have his nakama smile full-heartedly again and Camie cried, saying riding the ferries wheel was a childhood dream of hers.

Jiru grew closer to Camie as Luffy and the others paused for yet more ice cream. Jiru, feeling the ache in her foot; chose to remain sitting on the bubble bus. It was a choice that proved disastrous, as the plotting kidnappers moved in for the kill; kidnapping Camie. The kidnappers couldn't very well have a witness to their terrible deed; so they overwhelmed the treasure hunter and took her too.

XXX

Back on the Sunny-Gou, the remaining Mugiwaras were taking it easy – Franky, Sanji and Usoppu were debating on how many clothes would be bought between the three women. Their debate was interrupted by a Den-Den Mushi call from Hachi. A distraught Chopper told Sanji the terrible news: Camie and Jiru were missing, and most likely kidnapped. Sanji's focus sharpened into fierceness as he told Chopper and Brooke to wait there as he called in the favor from Duval.

Things became a race against time as Duval split his Fish-Riders to search for any leads on Camie or Jiru; then pick up the scattered pirates – Nami and Robin. Luffy, Papagg and Hachi had run off the first second they knew Camie and Jiru were missing, leaving Chopper and Brooke – with their recently acquired purchases behind.

In the midst of their frantic searching; Luffy, Hachi and Papagg began to dread ever finding the two kidnapped females. Papagg finally explained the underlying history of Shaboady Islands: the bigotry between Fishmen, mermen and humans. However, Luffy didn't care and told the starfish that Camie and Jiru were their friends and nothing would stop him from getting them back.

Elsewhere, Franky with a few of the Fish-riders, managed to locate Robin and Nami; just as the two females finished discussing Shabondy's hidden hatred that made Hachi and Camie so nervous. Franky told them the bad news as the girls joined the search.

XXX

Camie and Jiru both were terrified when the large man, Peterman, captured them. Jiru was more afraid for Camie, than herself. Wincing in pain as the kidnappers used her injury against her; she was unable to fight her way free and experienced a dark-falling dread of terror as they were sold to the Human Auction house. Being collared as Camie was brought in, Jiru screamed at the idiots who carried the mermaid; earning a slap to the face.

The manager, Disco, used Jiru's life against Camie's fighting will as the men collared Camie too. It was too much for Camie to endure as Disco began beating Jiru for mouthing off. The mermaid watch in shock as Disco-baka continued to beat Jiru, as harming the money-maker mermaid wasn't an option. However, it was when Disco fainted that gave the girls their reprieve, Jiru looking around in pained curiosity while Camie cried and helped her to her knees.

The bruised and bleeding treasure-hunter spotted the other slaves behind the bars on their right and looked at the giant and the tottering old man next to the hulk.

'Hey, old man, this is your doing, right?' The giant asked as the idiotic slave-sellers had run off to find a doctor for the fainted abuser.

'Who, me? I'm just an old Ship-coater who likes young girls.' The old man said.

'Great, just great, we're stuck with an old pervert.' Jiru mentioned when Camie started crying again. The twelfth Super Nova told the mermaid not to worry; they would find a way out of the mess; but both of them were unable to move and escape themselves – because the collars held them hostage. Jiru wasn't sure if she would be able to use her powers to remove the exploding nooses – she wouldn't risk trying to either.

However, as the auction opened and time progressed, neither Camie nor Jiru saw any sign of Hachi or Luffy. Their hopes grew dimmer as the numbered slaves sold were whittled down to their own numbers – 21 and 22. Camie clung desperately to Jiru when the slavers came to take next slaves away – 19 and 20. Locking eyes with the man Jiru found awfully familiar and with an overwhelming aura, she nodded curtly and smiled. He was up to something; and she told him she was too.

When the slavers came to prep Camie for sale, Jiru resisted and ended up being injured further, as they kicked her foot. Screaming in pain and fury, the treasure hunter was helpless and now worthless as a sale. It was the old man that told her to relax as he'd seen and heard enough to decide to help her out. Turning to him, Jiru asked if he was Silver Raleigh and laughed, affirming her question. In turn, he asked why the 'Silver-Queen' was in a low-life place like a slave auction. Jiru ended up telling him and the eaves-dropping giant that she was indeed the 'Silver Queen' and circumstances that brought her and Camie here were beyond her Reiki-Reiki ability to manipulate.

Raleigh found her story amusing and promptly released himself, the giant and her from the ticking-timed exploding collars. Jiru, now free from the horrid restraint bristled to leap into action; however, Ray-sama – as she now took to calling him – suggested they wait and see what would happen next.

The treasure hunter's doubt (full) and patience (empty) grew to opposite ends as they listened to the crowd's uproar as Camie was unveiled.

Minutes later, doubling over on her air-pad; an outpour of intense emotions swamped her. Being tense and unable to speak; she experienced the waves of energy that poured from the front. Raleigh asked her what was wrong.

'The energy out there is….overwhelming.' She answered. 'I…can feel the tension in the very air. My DF power has never been this acute or strong before.'

Raleigh told her to relax and just flow in the currents of energy. He explained that she was experiencing the 'Haki' flow. Jiru argued that her DF was Reiki-Reiki no Mi and never heard of 'Haki' before. However, the woman straightened up and told Raleigh that Luffy had arrived. Smiling to Raleigh, she lifted herself off the ground and looked for a way to help. Raleigh asked her to wait as he carved her a path; they were nakama, after all.

Waiting was the hardest part; as the underlying emotions of her nakama proved to be a powerful force – her senses still receiving the 'Haki' that Raleigh mentioned earlier. She felt the shock from Hachi as he was shot; the angst from Nami and the others, the fear from Camie and the anger from Luffy. She experienced the crowd's panic and Luffy's seething fury as he punched the Tenryuubito for shooting Hachi.

'She's gonna shoot Camie, Ray-sama…I can't wait any longer…!' The treasure hunter was still stunned minutes later. Raleigh nodded to the giant and turned to the woman, asking her if she was ready.

'Ready to kill that bitch Tenryuubito for even looking at Camie, yes.' Jiru answered.

'That's not a pleasant thing to say, Gin-chan.' The Dark King teased the short female back.

Having the giant rip open the wall dividing back from front; Raleigh used the distraction to use his Haki to calm Jiru. Catching her on his back, Raleigh then pushed his willpower outward and disabled the World Noble that was about to shoot Camie.

The Golden Thief & younger Silver Queen proved more than Raleigh imagined, as she struggled off his back and use her air pad to move freely. Shaking off the effects of Ray's Haki, Jiru was right behind Ray as he made his grand, snappy entrance. The overwhelming relief felt from the Haki's absence and seeing Luffy and the others allowed her to breathe easy again. She watched as the Dark King make short work of the remaining morons in the stands; using the same wave of power he had used on her. She and Camie were going to be free in seconds and it was all thanks to the strange old pirate; a figure from the past.


	23. Nakama

_Chapter 22: Gol D. Roger's Nakama_

Entering the scene behind the old man, Silver Raleigh, and free from her captivity behind the slave-auction stage-wall, Jiru meekly waved to the remaining crowd – mostly to Luffy and the Mugiwaras. They all visibly relaxed upon seeing her safe. Nami and the others had been concerned on how they were going to retrieve their second enslaved friend, since the idea to 'buy' Camie back was an epic fail.

'Hey, I'll buy you at your bounty cost, Golden Thief. You are just too hot to pass up.' Trafalgar's voice suddenly interrupted the stunned silence that had fallen when Raleigh made his entrance.

'Not on your life, idiot.' Sanji replied heated. The Golden Thief laughed at the tense situation and shook her head, muttering to herself that she knew she'd cross paths with the Super Nova that she felt a connection with hours before – Trafalgar Law.

'I'm not for sale, pirate-san, so just forget it.' She voiced her challenge to the Death Surgeon in the stands. Then, turning to the other Super Nova – Eustass Kidd – the Golden Thief blew Kidd's crew the finger. 'You too, perverts.'

Turning back to Luffy, she smiled at him and looked sheepish over her behavior. Rayleigh also viewed the scene and deciphered it; finally speaking to Luffy and announced how much he wanted to meet the boy. Finally, Raleigh turned to a still-collared Camie and began removing it. Papagg and Hachi became ultra-nervous and Jiru just smiled at them, pointing to her own neck, which was free of the exploding collar. After a tense few seconds, with the ticking echoing off the walls, Camie's collar was removed and exploded against the wall.

Turning when Franky came up behind her, the Golden Thief laughed as he displayed the keys he took 'forever' to find.

'You're too slow, Franiki-san.' She laughed and then pointed to the slaves that had been bought. 'You can free them, however.' The shipwright grumbled at her humor, but tossed the slaves the keys anyway.

She and Franky watched as Raleigh exchanged words with the other Rookies in the house; but mostly Hachi and Luffy. Then, after making sure the slaves were free, Jiru joined Luffy – who was evidently happy to see her safe. The other pirates concluded they all needed to leave before the marines managed to get them.

The involved parties agreed, since it was announced the auction house was surrounded by marines already. Kidd, being the tough guy he was, told the other four Novas to just relax and let him take care of the marines in the front – as a favor. The two captains refused to stay idle as Kidd was trying to show they up, and Luffy shoved and jockeyed his way against Kidd and Law. The trio noisily exited the house, declaring that the others were in the way. Jiru, curious and excited about the scene about to unfold; followed Luffy out the busted front door.

Outside, the trio of high-bounty captains still quarreled, saying how he each would take care of the battle-ready marines who had their guns trained on the pirates. The Golden Thief, sitting safely and comfortably above on a concave aura-pad laughed as she pointedly urged the two unknown Super Novas on, mentioning she wanted to see their 'powers'.

The fight was on, as the marines made the first move; aiming mortar cannons at the four of them. Making a show of faux boredom, Jiru threw up an aura wall between her as the iron shells that flew at her and the trio below. That ended instantly as the DF users used their powers to deflect their own shells; thus crashing through her aura wall. Watching Kidd and Law intently, the treasure hunter was fascinated by the power-show as the trio of captains brawled it out.

Law, however, took her appearance as a personal audience and told her to relax, as it'd all be over shortly – his insinuating sexual innuendo causing her to falter and blush. Kidd with his magnetic power, Law with his Shambles Room and Luffy with his Giant Punch, all gave the marines a huge helping of defeat. When it was over, she locked eyes with Law as he asked 'Mugiwara' why he was so tense. Blushing, Jiru averted her gaze and moved next to Luffy as he grew back to normal size.

In the lull of battle the rest of the three crews had finally made good their exit; the Heart Pirates, the Kidd Crew and the Mugiwaras. Along with Camie, Hachi and Raleigh, it was mentioned now, of all times, would be a golden chance to escape. The rebounding marines shouted out their plans and the pirates found it funny; saying their farewells.

Hearing the other two's parting line, the Golden Thief laughed as Luffy announced that he would find 'One Piece'. THAT got Kidd's attention as his nakama came to his rescue, stopping an errant marine sword.

Kidd then told them that they were laughed at whenever they said the same thing in the Grand Line, but whoever didn't have the guts to say so in the New World – the second half of the journey – had no right to be there. The two other pirate crew readied themselves to leave the Auction house behind; and the Mugiwaras finally got into the fray.

Giving one last glance at Law, and he at her; the Golden Thief used her Reiki-Reiki powers to direct a clear path of retreat for the Mugiwaras. Calling directions from above, she managed to clear her friends out in time for Nami's Thunderbolt Tempo. Sticking behind long enough, the Golden Thief's eyes caught the act of Law freeing the large slave of a man who sat passively outside auction house door: Jean Bart had caught her attention the moment she had left the building and now Law had freed him. Caught in the act of watching him, Law rewarded her with a wink as she finally fled the scene – red in the face. It would seem the treasure hunter was smitten with another bad-ass pirate.

Catching up with Luffy and the rest at Grove 13, she watched the departure of the Rosy Life Riders. Brooke and Usoppu light-heartedly teased her for staying behind, and Chopper became vindictive, telling her to stop being to reckless and stay put until he had tended to the wounded Hachi.

The sensitive nose and keen eye of her doctor noticed the condition of her foot; which was once again bruised – the beating received from the auction house agitated her freshly healed ankle. Telling the concerned animal doctor not to worry, the worried Chopper ordered her relax and not move. She complied, since they were back at Shakky's Bar. Settling herself in next to Zoro, who sat apart from everyone else, Jiru gave up trying to snuggle against the swordsman and joined Luffy at his feeding frenzy at the ice-box. Refreshments were given and conversation started and went smoothly until Raleigh stated he was Gol D. Roger's first mate, sending Luffy into a hype.

Everyone there was shocked or stunned; as Raleigh's monologue story coupled with Jiru's new-found 'Illustration Aura' blew everyone out of the water. The old man's recollection of the Pirate King's last days became the highlight of the afternoon, the memories of the old man being presented as visual-see-it-all video. Being thoroughly impressed by the Golden Thief's little surprise, Raleigh finished telling his memories and the Mugiwaras interjected their astonishment.

Afterwards, Robin asked about the Will of D. which caused Usoppu to ask about One Piece. Luffy promptly shut Usoppu up; announcing that he would quit being a pirate if Raleigh answered Usoppu's question. The shock in the room was electric; but Raleigh was wise enough to sidestep the treasure's question and managed to get Robin to re-think her question of Will of D.

After the conversation puttered out, it was decided to let Raleigh coat their ship so it could go to Fishman Island underneath the sea. A span of three days was needed to properly do the job, so Raleigh suggested the Mugiwaras take it easy; and then find him using pieces of his Vivre Card. Upon leaving the Rip-Off Bar, the Mugiwaras agreed to split ways and join again in three days; they had no idea of the adventure that would happen next.


	24. Separated

_Chapter 23: Separat__ion_

Where had it all gone wrong? The treasure hunter thought blindly. It had all gone so horribly wrong. Just minutes before; she, Zoro, Luffy and the others had been laughing at the bad memories of the Human Slave Auction; and now it was a hellish mess.

Standing painfully on a strained foot, Jiru watched as the real Kuma reached for the swordsman in front of her. She couldn't give anymore…her body was unable to move another inch. Her slowly-recovering eyesight was a huge handicap; she had been blinded by the light of Admiral Kizaru – the DF user of light – minutes before.

The avalanche of bad events was all her fault; if she hadn't turned around to tease Zoro for the eighth time as they ran away from fighting Sentoumaru and his fake Kumas, then she wouldn't have been caught off-guard. But she had turned around and had missed the incoming mass of light who was the Logia-DF-user Admiral Kizaru. The admiral had caught her by the neck and used a brilliant flash of light to take out her eyesight before she knew what occurred. Zoro attempted to rescue her and ended up paying the price. Kizaru had kicked the swordsman in the gut and on the ground, sending him writhing in pain from his half-healed wounds from Thriller Bark.

It was terrifying to hear and not see what Kizaru would do to them. He was first going to kill Roronoa Zoro and then her. From the horrified screams and pleas from Luffy and the others, the admiral was holding to his promise. Jiru, however, used her Reiki powers and attempted to push the grounded Zoro away from Kizaru. That worked, only for a minute; then the light-light man warped his light-made body to pin the swordsman on the ground feet away, cutting her effort short. This left her free, gasping for air and completely blinded. She watched, more like sensed, as Kizaru was about to kill Zoro.

It was utter relief when Ray-sama came to the rescue and saved Zoro from death. Sanji and Brooke had come to hers, the skeleton helping her to her feet and ending up carrying her while Usoppu lugged the injured Zoro away from Kizaru. Sanji jumped in as her group was reft of its main protection; Zoro. The glade was full of confusion and battles. They had all split into three groups, running away from the marine bastard, Sentoumaru, who had tracked them down and engaged in battle. Everyone was screaming at one another, shouting for them to all run away.

That was what they were trying to do; but Kizaru, his nephew Sentomaru and the Paficistas all got in the way. Now, she, Zoro, Sanji, Brooke and Usoppu were at the mercy of the real Bartholomew Kuma. Her blindness made her a blundering idiot; and Zoro had jerked her back, stopping her from colliding with the titan who suddenly appeared in front of them.

It had been too high a price; as the narrow tunnel of returned vision granted her the sight of Kuma killing Zoro. Zoro was standing there one moment and the next, he was gone, vanished – dead to her Reiki senses. The only way for Zoro drop completely from her small-radius of Reiki sense in a heartbeat was to die. Zoro was gone; and he had tried to protect her.

So she stood there, unable to move, unable to process what just occurred. Behind her, Usoppu was screaming Zoro's name, then hers, then Sanji's.

Standing dead still, Jiru didn't even shiver as Usoppu's Kabuto launched attack after attack; each deadly projectile flying by her inert body by mere centimeters. It was all worthless, however, as the real Kuma was just too strong.

Sanji propped himself up on his elbows, panting and hurting from the previous wounds he gained from trying to help out the trio. Behind him were Brooke, Usoppu and his precious Jiru. He was enraged for Jiru; seeing Zoro vanish into thin air had disabled the treasure hunter, leaving her very vulnerable and wide open for attack. The cook was not going to have any of that and stepped up his game.

"So…is this guy finally the real Kuma?" Sanji asked himself. "I mean…we've fought with three of these guys, already!"

"WHERE'S ZORO?" Usoppu barked, still enraged. "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU SEND HIM? ANSWER ME! YOU BASTARD!"

Behind Usoppu, the PX-1 was preparing to fire another beam, this time from his mouth. Its sights were set on the sniper and treasure hunter. Only Sanji noticed enough to react.

"Usoppu, Jiru!" Sanji cried. "Look out behind you!"

Before cyborg could attack the two unaware Mugiwaras, the real Kuma tapped the paficista with his paws, causing the cyborg fake to disappear.

"Don't interfere…" the real Kuma said, simply.

"He just made one of his own disappear!" Sanji exclaimed, as the battle kept taking twists and turns enough to confuse him.

Across the clearing in which the Mugiwaras were fighting various forces set against them; Luffy was facing against Sentomaru. The axe-wielding sumo-weighted marine-in-training gasped in surprise when he saw what the real Kuma did with PX-1.

"What?" Sentomaru hissed in annoyance. "He touched PX-1? What the hell is he doing? KUMA! WHY ARE YOU MAKING ONE OF YOUR OWN DISAPPEAR?"

"RUN FOR IT, YOU GUYS!" Luffy shouted, unable to do anything for his far-separated nakama. "WE HAVE TO GET OUTTA HERE, NOW! WE'LL THINK OF SOMETHING ONCE WE'RE SAFE FROM THESE GUYS!"

"But Luffy, what about Zoro and Jiru?" Nami asked from next to him. The other group who had parted ways – Robin, Franky and Chopper - all viewed how the treasure hunter had just shut down after Zoro vanished.

"He said we'll worry about it later, Sis!" Franky answered. "Now let's scram!" With that, the Straw Hats prepared to run, once again.

"C'mon, Jiru!" Usoppu said as he tried to get the treasure hunter to move. "That last beam only grazed me! Just grab onto my shoulders! Hurry up!"

Beside the begging sniper, Sanji struggled to stand on his feet, determined to protect the unresponsive treasure hunter. Mere feet away, Brooke staggered to his feet to see Kuma approaching the weary and slow retreating trio, the Shichibukai had his hand raised. The fighting skeleton gasped before he threw himself in between the Warlord and his three escaping comrades.

"Look out, you three!" Brooke said gallantly. "I shall protect you three with my life!" the musician said. "Even though I am already d-"

Before Brooke could finish his little joke, Kuma repelled the skeleton him, causing him to also disappear. In the sky, another bubble popped.

Jiru gasped, her body twitching by reaction; the sickening feeling that formed in the pit of her stomach told her another one of her friends had died. Brooke had also vanished from senses, gone from the spot she just had heard him talk in. Her vision slowly came back as she turned around. What she viewed was hell: there was no Zoro and no sign of Brooke; and beside her, Usoppu and Sanji were trying to get her to run.

"BROOKE! ZORO!" The treasure hunter's heart-rending screams made the Mugiwaras all flinch. The scream was full of fear and desperation.

Next to Jiru, Sanji growled in frustration as he began to grab his hair, his nails digging into his scalp. Hearing Jiru's soul-wrenching cry drove him to the brink of insanity. His precious Jiru-chwan was in mortal anguish and there was nothing he could do to help her.

"Shit, shit, shit!" he cursed. "What the hell am I doing, just standing here? Two members of our crew got erased RIGHT in front of my eyes! USOPPU, JIRU! RUN!"

"Don't talk like a maniac, Sanji!" Usoppu said, trying in vain to get Jiru to move. "We've got to run! You have to come with us!"

"YOU DAMN PAW-BASTARD, HOW DARE YOU MAKE JIRU-CHAN CRY!" Sanji shouted as he charged at Kuma. The cook had had enough, and launched a flame-footed Diablo Kick, but Kuma blocked the cook's heel with his paw, flinging Sanji into a nearby tree root. Sanji tried to get back up, but as he lifted his head, he saw, to his horror, that Kuma was now trying to attack Usoppu and Jiru.

"No!" Usoppu cried, stepping in front of Jiru. "Stay back! Stay away from me! Special Attack: EXPLODING STAR! EXPLODING STAR!"

The frantic sniper shot two Exploding Stars at the threat, but shots had no effect on the Shichibukai at all. Before the sniper could react again, Kuma pressed his paw against his chest. Yet another bubble burst in the sky as Usoppu vanished. Sanji gasped and Jiru had screamed incoherently again. Three crewmates had vanished and he couldn't do a damned thing about it. Kuma was now looking at Jiru; who hadn't moved since Usoppu had dragged her three feet.

"JIRU-CHAN, RUN!" Sanji shouted before he got up and charged at Kuma once again; trying his best to protect his treasure hunter. "DAMN YOU!"

Charging the gigantic Shichibukai, Sanji launched himself into the air and prepared a deadly kick for Kuma's eyes. However, the cyborg plainly saw it coming and reached out with his ungloved hand and swiped his paw at Sanji, and the cook was the next to disappear.

Four. Four of her closest friends were dead; gone from her senses like they were never there: Zoro, Brooke, Usoppu and Sanji. Looking up as the shadow fell over her, she viewed Kuma. The Shichibukai was calmly walking towards her. She didn't care; couldn't care; her heart was raw from losing her friends. If they couldn't escape Kuma; how could she?

Her muddled senses vaguely registered Luffy's panicked screams at her to run, but she couldn't do it. There was no possible way she could physically out-run this threat. Turning her body towards Luffy's voice, her returning eyesight locked with his for just a moment before she felt Kuma's paw on her back.

"I'm sorry, Luffy-chan-" She managed to whisper before she too, was gone.

Grove 12 of the Shaboady Archipelago in the Grand Line; it was there, on that day, that the Straw Hat Pirates, led by Monkey D. Luffy...had been eradicated.

To be continued…


End file.
